While postcolonial studies of Romantic-period literature have flourished in recent years, scholars have long neglected the extent of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's engagement with the Orient in both his literary and philsophical writings. Bringing together leading international writers, Coleridge, Romanticism and the Orient is the first substantial exploration of Coleridge's literary and scholarly representations of the east and the ways in which these were influenced by and went on to influence his own work and the orientalism of the Romanticists more broadly. Bringing together postcolonial, philsophical, historicist and literary-critical perspectives, this groundbreaking book develops a new understanding of 'Orientalism' that recognises the importance of colonial ideologies in Romantic representations of the East as well as appreciating the unique forms of meaning and value which authors such as Coleridge asscoiated with the Orient.

Introduction Part I: Coleridge, Southey, and the Orient 1. Refusing to Kowtow: Romantic-period Representations of Asian Ceremonials from Macartney to Byron, Peter Kitson 2. Coleridge and William Hodges' Travels in India (1793), Deirdre Coleman 3. Coleridge, Southey, Thalaba and Christabel, Tim Fulford 4. S.T. Coleridge, William Empson, and Japan, Seamus Perry 5. Oriental Dilettantes and Modernity:The Reception of Coleridge in Japan, Kaz Oishi Part II: Coleridge, Philosophy, and the Orient 6. Coleridge, Philosophy, Orient, Andrew Warren 7. Immanence and Transcendence in Coleridge's Orient, David Vallins 8. 'The One Life Within Us and Abroad': Coleridge and Hinduism, Natalie Tal Harries 9. On Artistic Disinterestedness: Coleridge, Kant, and Schopenhauer Compared, Setsuko Wake-Naota Part III: 'Kubla Khan' and Romantic Orientalism 10. The Integral Significance of the 1816 Preface to 'Kubla Khan', Heidi Thomson 11. The Mathematics of Dreams: The Psychological Infinity of the East and Geometric Structures in Coleridge's 'Kubla Khan', Dometa Wiegand Brothers 12. 'Kubla Khan' and British Chinoiserie: The Geopolitics of Chinese Gardens, Kuri Katsuyama Bibliography Index