The problem of the body in Romantic Studies: On the strengths and limits of New Materialism

Abstract

Within the last couple of years, the recently established field of research called “New Materialism” has made its entry into studies of Romanticism, and especially that of the Romantic body. Hitherto a subject explored through the guises of medicine, anatomy, and physiology on the one hand and deconstruction and poststructuralism on the other, the body is now being re‐interpreted within a field that itself has vowed a return to the material and its agentive interconnectedness with other matter. On that, Romantic studies of the body deliver, however, looking at the body through a new materialist framework is not entirely unproblematic. In this essay, I will look at some of the upsides and downsides of the merger of Romanticism, body studies, and New Materialism.