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(More customer reviews)For Coleridge fans, and Romanticists more generally, Stokes' book is a must read. He challenges traditional "positive" v. "negative" romanticism dichotomy, and argues for what he calls Coleridge's "fragile sublime," which positions Coleridge in the liminal space between transcendence and finitude (I am going quickly as this is only an Amazon review :)). I think Stokes is right in his primary thesis, and he offers excellent readings of a number of Coleridge's poems to evidence his theory that there was a chronological development from transcendence to finitude. One question that is still worth asking, however: to what extent does Stokes' notion of "finitude" become "transcendence" by other means (namely, as withdrawal, prayer, givenness, etc.)? So: a more sophisticated transcendence as finitude in the form of faith grounded on mystery of existence? This is not a counter to Stokes, but a response to what I think he is getting at in this book. I really loved that Stokes brought Nancy and Derrida and Heidegger into the discussion, as Coleridge presages all three of these thinkers, even though he is neglected by comparison. All of this should change with the recent flood of excellent works on Coleridge (Milnes, Berkeley, Hamilton): add Stokes to the list! This is a great study. Bravo!
Jonathan Murphy
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Traversing the themes of language, terror and representation, this is the first study to engage Coleridge through the sublime, showing him to have a compelling position in an ongoing conversation about finitude. Drawing on close readings of both his poetry and prose, it depicts Coleridge as a thinker of "the limit" with contemporary force.
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