Romantic Satanism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction

   • Peter A. Schock

   Pages 1-10

3. The Cultural Matrix of Romantic Satanism

   • Peter A. Schock

   Pages 11-40

4. Blake, the Son of Fire, and the God of this World

   • Peter A. Schock

   Pages 41-77

5. Base and Aristocratic Artificers of Ruin: Plebeian Blasphemy and the Satanic School

   • Peter A. Schock

   Pages 78-112

6. Savior and Avenger: Shelleyan Satanism and the Face of Change

   • Peter A. Schock

   Pages 113-142

7. Ironic Modes of Satanism in Byron and Shelley

   • Peter A. Schock

   Pages 143-169

8. Epilogue: The Ghost of Abel

   • Peter A. Schock

   Pages 170-175

9. Back Matter

   Pages 176-213

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Criticism has largely emphasised the private meaning of 'Romantic Satanism', treating it as the celebration of subjectivity through allusions to Paradise Lost that voice Satan's solitary defiance. The first full-length treatment of its subject, Romantic Satanism explores this literary phenomenon as a socially produced myth exhibiting the response of writers to their milieu. Through contextualized readings of the major works of Blake, Shelley, and Byron, this book demonstrates that Satanism enabled Romantic writers to interpret their tempestuous age: it provided them a mythic medium for articulating the hopes and fears their age aroused, for prophesying and inducing change.

• Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Romanticism
• William Blake
• British and Irish Literature

'The opening chapter provides an excellent foundation for the rest of the book which provides detailed, intelligent and illuminating readings of the Satanic texts of Blake, Shelly and Byron...Schock's contextualizing approach enables him to show the extent to which each of the studied poets shared their conceptions of Satan with other writers and artists...Illuminating moments of textual criticiam can be found throughout Romantic Satanism , making it a pleasure to read and a book that can be recommended to all students and scholars of Romantic Poetry, as well as to those who are already of the devil's party.' - Simon Bainbridge, Lancaster University, Romanticism

PETER A. SCHOCK received his A.B. in English at California State University at Humboldt and his Ph.D at the University of Iowa. He has taught Romantic Literature at the University of New Orleans since 1989; he is now Professor. Previous publications include essays in ELH and Keats-Shelley Journal.

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