Poetry and British Nationalisms in the Bardic Eighteenth Century: Imagined Antiquities

Abstract: Building on the increased attention that English literary studies have given to the figure of the Celtic bard since the publication of Katie Trumpener’s Bardic Nationalism in 1997, Jeff Strabone’s monograph further enriches our appreciation of the poetic heritage evoked by often marginalised eighteenth-century writers and the established canon of Romantic literature. Strabone argues that ‘archaic native poetry, newly discovered and printed in the eighteenth century, provided historiographical support for the construction of the modern nation’ (p.2). Drawing on the work of Benedict Anderson, he contends that the version of nationalism that emerges can be described as ‘modern’ (p.49), based upon a shared cultural identity rather than coalescence around elite state and religious institutions.

Author(s): Amy Louise Blaney

Date Published: 16 November 2021

Depositing User: Basiratu Kolawole

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1754-0208.12814

Keywords: British Nationalisms

Page(s): 145-146

Place of publication: Basingstoke

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Subject(s): Literary Studies

Type of publication: Book reviews