Stanley Cavell and English Romanticism serves as both introduction to Cavell for Romanticists, and to the larger question of what philosophy means for the reading of literature, as well as to the importance and relevance of Romantic literature to Cavell's thought. Illustrated through close readings of Wordsworth and Shelley, and extended discussions of Emerson and Thoreau as well as Cavell, Duffy proposes a Romanticism of persisting cultural relevance and truly trans-Atlantic scope. The turn to romanticism of America's most distinguished "ordinary-language" philosopher is shown to be tied to the neo-Romantic claim that far from being merely an illustrator of the truths discovered by philosophy, poetry is its equal partner in the instituting of knowledge. This book will be vital reading for anyone interested in Romanticism, Stanley Cavell and the ever-deepening connections between literature and philosophy.

1. Stanley Cavell's Redemptive Reading: A Philosophical Labor in Progress 2. Reading Romanticism3. A Wordsworthian Calling of Thinking 4. Bursting from a Congregated Might of Vapors: Desire, Expression and Motive in Shelley 5. "The Breath Whose Might I Have Invoked in Song": Epipsychidion and Adonais 6. Reviewing the Vision of The Triumph of Life BibliographyIndex