The Myth and Identity of the Romantic Artist in European Literature : A Self-Constructed Fantasy

Introduction
Forming Identity: An Interdisciplinary Approach
The Making of Artistic Genius
Goethe's Prometheus, Rousseau's Pygmalion, and their Progeny
"Now, if I know myself, I should say, that I have no character at all"
Byron's Mythmaking Strategies
Percy Shelley and the Metaphysical Authenticity of the Poet
Théophile Gautier, Stylistic Identity and Poetic Time
A Sociopoetical Approach to Genius

"This study addresses the question of artistic identity and the myth of the artist as it has been shaped by the artists themselves. While the term artist is to be understood in a broad sense, the focus of this study is the literature of the Romantic tradition. Identity is largely perceived as a construct, and a central hypothesis of this book concerns its aesthetic value and the ways it creates dominant narratives of self-perception that produce powerful myths. The construction of the artist's identity, be it collective or personal, rests on a series of aesthetic praxes. Caught between the mythic idealisation of poetic genius and its social devaluation, the Romantic artist seeks to create a place for himself, and in doing so, he engages in his own mythmaking. This process is studied in an interdisciplinary perspective, approaching texts and writers from different traditions. The study analyses various typologies of the artist, numerous mythmaking strategies as well as several postural techniques; all of which have sketched major direct or indirect fictional self-portraits in the European tradition"-- Provided by publisher