Constellations of a Contemporary Romanticism

Constellations of a Contemporary Romanticism takes its title and point of departure from Walter Benjamin's concept of the historical constellation, which puts both "e;contemporary"e; and "e;romanticism"e; in play as period designations and critical paradigms. Featuring fascinating and diverse contributions by an international roster of distinguished scholars working in and out of romanticism-from deconstruction to new historicism, from queer theory to postcolonial studies, from visual culture to biopolitics-this volume makes good on a central tenet of Benjamin's conception of history: These critics "e;grasp the constellation"e; into which our "e;own era has formed with a definite earlier one."e; Each of these essays approaches romanticism as a decisive and unexpired thought experiment that makes demands on and poses questions for our own time: What is the unlived of a contemporary romanticism? What has romanticism's singular untimeliness bequeathed to futurity? What is romanticism's contemporary "e;redemption value"e; for painting and politics, philosophy and film?