Book contents
- The Cambridge Companion to the Romantic Sublime
- The Cambridge Companion to the Romantic Sublime
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Sublime before Romanticism
- Part II Romantic Sublimes
- 5 German Romanticism and the Sublime
- 6 The Romantic Sublime and Kant’s Critical Philosophy
- 7 Alpine Sublimes
- 8 Urban Sublimes
- 9 Highlands, Lakes, Wales
- 10 Science and the Sublime
- 11 Musical Sublimes
- 12 The Arctic Sublime
- 13 The Body and the Sublime
- 14 The Sublime in Romantic Painting
- 15 From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
- 16 The Sublime in American Romanticism
- Part III Legacies
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
7 - Alpine Sublimes
from Part II - Romantic Sublimes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 July 2023
- The Cambridge Companion to the Romantic Sublime
- The Cambridge Companion to the Romantic Sublime
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I The Sublime before Romanticism
- Part II Romantic Sublimes
- 5 German Romanticism and the Sublime
- 6 The Romantic Sublime and Kant’s Critical Philosophy
- 7 Alpine Sublimes
- 8 Urban Sublimes
- 9 Highlands, Lakes, Wales
- 10 Science and the Sublime
- 11 Musical Sublimes
- 12 The Arctic Sublime
- 13 The Body and the Sublime
- 14 The Sublime in Romantic Painting
- 15 From the Sublime to the Ridiculous
- 16 The Sublime in American Romanticism
- Part III Legacies
- Further Reading
- Index
- Cambridge Companions To …
Summary
The Alpine sublime contributed to the Romantic vogue for mountains, but also to the development of Romantic aesthetics and modern subjectivity. This chapter examines a variety of representations of the Alps, including scientific and aesthetic treatises, poems, prose fiction, and painting, as well as more ephemeral documents such as travel journals and visitors’ books. Authors addressed include Rousseau, Ramond, the Duchess of Devonshire, Wordsworth, the Shelleys, Byron, and Ruskin. It argues that the Alpine sublime served as an expression of divine power, human autonomy, and social distinction. Proceeding chronologically, the chapter begins with the Grand Tour, with its scientific, aesthetic, and mythical representations of the Alps, then looks at how the French Revolution appropriated the Alpine sublime, at ways in which Romantic writers responded by making it a private experience, and finally at how tourism helped generalize this modern attitude to mountains.
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- The Cambridge Companion to the Romantic Sublime , pp. 92 - 103Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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