Romantic literature, race, and colonial encounter /

Author/editor of numerous volumes on Romanticism, Kitson (Univ. of Dundee) is here "concerned with the significance of the biological and the various models of race" derived from it. He argues that "by the end of the Romantic period, the biological understanding of race was clearly becoming the dominant paradigmatic explanation of human difference." The author includes specific, cogent accounts of scientific works of the 18th and 19th centuries, and he discusses a variety of literary works, including writings by Coleridge, De Quincey, and Mary Shelley. In addition to lucid and expert surveys of influential arguments by Georges Cuvier, Carl Linnaeus, Georges-Louis Buffon, William Lawrence, and many others, Kitson explains controversies in views of race during the period. His arguments are balanced--for example, he writes that "racial prejudice and slavery may well have been equally both cause and effect of each other"--and well informed by use of recent scholarship, including William St. Clair's The Door of No Return (CH, Jan'08, 45-2758) and Anatomy of Racism, ed. by David Theo Goldberg (1990). In each instance, and in relation to his own excellent earlier work, Kitson offers new contributions, including exposition of the often-contradictory views of race in Romantic-period writings and culture. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. T. Hoagwood Texas A&M University