Reading Byron's Body and Mind

Shears, Jonathon

Abstract

This chapter explores the intersections between body and mind in Byron’s work and self-presentation. These can be viewed through five main lenses: the Galenic language of the four humours; discourses of passions and affections; new understanding of the nervous system; the comic deflation typical of the eighteenth-century novel; the Godwinian idealistic belief that the mind could be independent of the body. In each case, the essay argues that Byron worked with these inherited ideas to explore questions of agency, free will, and the deep-lying reasons for human action. It further suggests that, even as Byron is often viewed as the most embodied of Romantic poets, the actions of his characters are usually set in the context of mental activity. The chapter reads three decisive scenes in Byron’s work as examples where a mediating cognitive context operates and directs what might otherwise be viewed as primarily bodily reactions to an environment.

Citation

Shears, J. (2024). Reading Byron's Body and Mind. In The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron (596-611). Oxford University Press (OUP). https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808800.013.40

• Online Publication Date: Oct 22, 2024
• Publication Date: Oct 17, 2024
• Deposit Date: Oct 15, 2024
• Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
• Pages: 596-611
• Book Title: The Oxford Handbook of Lord Byron
• Chapter Number: 39
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198808800.013.40
• Keywords: Lord Byron, body, mind, emotions, agency, passions, moral philosophy, Don Juan, Manfred, Cain
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/951209
• Publisher URL: https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/58801/chapter-abstract/489186532?redirectedFrom=fulltext