Re-examining English Romanticism through Hegel's philosophy, this book outlines and expands upon Hegel's theory of recognition. Deakin critiques four canonical writers of the English Romantic tradition, Coleridge, Wordsworth, P.B. Shelley and Mary Shelley, arguing that they, as Hegel, are engaged in a struggle towards philosophical recognition.

Introduction i. A Discrimination of Vriticisms ii. Why 'philosophical romanticism' iii. Romantic Embodiment iv. Chapter Breakdown PART I: HEGELIAN ROMANTICISM AND THE SYMBIOTIC ALTERITY OF AUTONOMY AND RECEPTIVITY 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Hegel's Conception of Recognition in an Aesthetic Light 1.3 Hegel's Response to Romantic Art 1.4 Hegel and Romantic Metaphysics 1.5 Hegel's Aesthetics in the Modern Context PART II: PHILOSOPHY, THEOLOGY AND INTELLECTUAL INTUITION IN COLERIDGE'S POETICS 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Coleridge's Philosophical Dichotomy 2.3 Coleridge's Theological Escape from Aporia 2.4 Symbol and Allegory in Coleridge 2.5 The Deconstruction of Allegory and Symbol in 'Kubla Khan' 2.6 The Antagonists of the Imagination in 'Kubla Khan' 2.7 Coleridge's 'unhappy consciousness' in 'Frost at Midnight' 2.8 The Aporetic Recognition through Joy in 'Dejection' 2.9 Recognitive Breakdown in 'Constancy to an Ideal Object' PART III: WORDSWORTH'S METAPHYSICAL EQUIPOISE 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Wordsworth and Romantic Metaphysics 3.3 Wordsworth's Ladder 3.4 Dialectical Criticism of Wordsworth 3.5 Contingency and Embodiment 3.6 Doubt and Embodiment in 'Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey, on revisiting the banks of the Wye during a tour, July 13, 1798.' 3.7 'Home' at Grasmere: Embodiment 3.8 The Unifying Nature of the Wordsworthian Symbol 3.9 Conclusion PART IV: DIALECTICAL COLLAPSE AND POST-ROMANTIC RECOGNITION IN SHELLEY 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Shelley's Quest for the Imagination uponMont Blanc 4.3 Visionary Alienation in 'Alastor' 4.4 Eschatological Projection in 'Adonais' 4.5 Wonder, Transfiguration and Irony in 'The Triumph of Life' PART V: THE CONTINGENT LIMITS OF ROMANTIC MYTH MAKING 5.1 Introduction 5.2 The Romantic Discourse of Wordsworth and Coleridge 5.3 Shelley's Second-order Discourse 5.4 Embodied Scepticism: Frankenstein 5.5 Conclusion