Madness and the Romantic Poet

Whitehead makes a compelling case for how the cultural construct of the mad poet has implications well beyond the realm of literary history, standing as a testimony to the impact of Romanticism on modernity. Whitehead's theoretical sophistication, evidenced by his engagement of the legacy of Foucault in particular, as well as his extraordinary erudition and meticulous research, are better experienced than described. The book richly rewards the time a reader invests to it. * Bridget Keegan, European Romantic Review *
James Whitehead's Madness and the Romantic Poet is recommended reading for anyone tempted to engage with the idea of the mad poet, whether in the Romantic period, or in more recent decades ... Whitehead is less interested in individual representations of madness in the period than he is in asking why the mad Romantic poet became a cultural meme. In doing so, he draws a convincing lineage. * Times Literary Supplement *
Whitehead's meticulous study fills [a] critical gap in knowledge ... The originality of Whitehead's study lies in its appeal to an array of audiences. Far-reaching and interdisciplinary, it is of interest to those working in the medical humanities as well as to literary theorists and literature enthusiasts (especially in its examination of poetry, literary criticism and biography); to historians of psychiatry and those interested in the history of madness (particularly in its historical account of the rise of psychological approaches to poetry); to clinicians (in its discussion of the history of psychiatry and medicine and its explanation of how these disciplines affected and altered the cultural, social and literary meanings of madness); and to historians in general (given that it is, at its heart, a cultural history). * Shoshannah Jones Square, History of Psychiatry *
This text is rich with a wealth of research from primary sources, secondary analyses and literary criticism. It is particularly deft in its dialogue with the work of Foucault and a variety of other notable scholars in the field ... In its mission to examine how the mythology of madness coalesced around the British Romantics, this text does a smart painstaking job of debunking and re-contextualizing, and should be incredibly useful to specialized scholars interested in the topic. * Jessica C Hume, The British Society for Literature and Science *
[A] learned and wide ranging monograph ... [it succeeds] in an innovative and comprehensive way ... an enormous achievement in terms of the collocation, analysis and discussion of a wide range of diverse texts, both primary and secondary ... Undoubtedly, it deserves to be well received. * Review of English Studies *