Absorbing hesitation: wordsworth and the theory of the panorama.(Critical essay)

I. Sublimity, Virtuality, Materiality

THERE HAS BEEN A NOTICEABLE PREOCCUPATION, EVEN FASCINATION, with the panorama in romantic studies. (1) At the heart of this essay is the claim that the reason we continue to be so fascinated by the specter of the romantic-era panorama is that we are still caught in a romantic dilemma. The panorama compels us to confront a fundamental question of avant-garde aesthetics: what distance (or not) should art assume towards casual (mass, commercial, idiotic) enjoyment? Furthermore, the aesthetic debates unleashed by the panorama survive and even ...

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