VARIA: The Intermundium of S. T. Coleridge’s Genius in Biographia Literaria

Abstract

The focus of this article is on the peculiar space that S.T. Coleridge constructs for his own genius in Chapter II and Chapter IX of Biographia Literaria. Specific attention is devoted to some rhetorical ploys that Coleridge uses to accommodate his own figure among paragons like William Shakespeare and William Wordsworth. The text then explores Coleridge’s attachment to and detachment from the figures of Friedrich Schelling and Jacob Böhme. In the conclusion, a statement is made on the intermundium between enthusiasm and metaphysical reasoning in which Coleridge’s genius is located.