| John Keats's poetic ideals, those of the "camelion" poet and Negative Capability, value detachment as central to his aesthetic aspirations. The publication and reception of his works during and after his lifetime complicate how he is understood during the nineteenth century and often overwhelms the comprehension of his works. During Keats's lifetime, his association with Leigh Hunt and his circle prompted bitter responses from the Tory critics who see Keats and his poetic aspirations as linked to Hunt's call for social reform. Following Keats's death at age 25 from tuberculosis, "had he lived" becomes the caveat in posthumous criticisms and assessments of his work. Keats's afterlife maintains a dynamic existence of its own, oscillating between Keats as sensual, morally bankrupt, overly passionate and an aesthetic genius as new biographies and editions of his works alter perceptions and expectations of the deceased poet.; For Keats, detachment becomes a method by which he, as a poet, can best express the poetic imagination combined with an interest in humanity and community. Keats's reception becomes shaped by what Wolfgang Iser refers to as the gaps and incompleteness he leaves behind him. Keats's various audiences become forced to fill in the gaps left in Keats's work and biography. This dissertation examines the influences of Keats on nineteenth-century British aestheticism and the ways in which the reception of his works and biographies impact that influence. Through a study of Keats's aesthetic development, this study examines the relationship between Keats's poetics of detachment and his Romantic contemporaries and the reception by and influences on Victorian figures, including Alfred Tennyson, Matthew Arnold, Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. |
