Out of Romanticism: Byron and Romance

Abstract

This essay considers Romance as a genre not only etymologically related to the literary epoch of Romanticism, but as forming a locus for Romantic interconnectedness. The central contention is that through his writing of and correspondence about the Romantic genre, Byron’s position as a writer central to the Romantic impulse can be ascertained. This essay seeks neither to fully equate Byron’s verse Romances with those of Coleridge, Scott or Moore, instead it tries to more fully articulate the centrality of Byron’s place as a writer of Romance within the Romantic canon than has been previously recognised. The essay is based on the premise that Byron’s poetry evidences the practice of genre hybridisation that was familiar to him through his readings of Goethe and A.W. Schlegel.