Thursday 12 November
| 11:30am - 12:30pm
Free
Venue: Share
Thursday 12 November, 11:30am, Derby Theatre Community Hub, DE1 2NF
Dr Paul Whickman, author of Blasphemy and Politics in Romantic Literature: Creativity in the Writing of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Palgrave, 2020), will be speaking on blasphemy and literary censorship in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
While arguing that literary blasphemy is inextricable from politics, Whickman makes the case for ‘irreverence’ as both inspiring and necessitating new poetic creativity. At the same time, while offering a brief overview of the legal, political and other constraints which authors were subject to in the period, Whickman also draws parallels to literary culture in the present day.
Whickman will primarily focus on the great Romantic poet —and alleged ‘atheist’ — Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose poetry was frequently condemned for its apparent blasphemy, obscenity and political subversion. As well as examining the legal and publication challenges Shelley faced, Whickman will also explore how his poetry is directly shaped by his political and religious beliefs.
These are not just simply reflected in the themes or subjects of his poems but instead affect the very poetic language used to express them. In this way, political and religious subversion is connected to the work of poetic creativity.
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