Romantic paganism: the politics of ecstasy in the Shelley circle

This text addresses the function of the classical world in the cultural imaginations of the second generation of romantic writers: Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, Thomas Love Peacock, John Keats, Leigh Hunt and the rest of their diverse circle.

The younger romantics inherited impressions of the ancient world coloured by the previous century, in which classical studies experienced a resurgence, the emerging field of comparative mythography investigated the relationship between Christianity and its predecessors and scientific and archaeological discoveries began to shed unprecedented light on the ancient world.

The Shelley circle embraced a specifically pagan ancient world of excess, joy and ecstatic experiences that test the boundaries between self and other.