Romantics Can Party
Conference on Romanticism looks at the politics of an old era's literary and party culture
Shelley, Byron and the writers of the Romantic Era have had their ups and downs in popularity over the past two centuries, but nobody ever denied one thing about them: They knew how to throw a party.
Georgia Tech Professor Crystal Lake said the lavish parties weren't just fodder for the gossips of the time; they were an important part of the mystique and the politics of the writers and their era.
Presenting a paper on "Party Like It's 1799: The Politics of Celebrating in the Romantic Era," Lake was one of the panelists at a two day conference last week on "Romanticism and Modernity," sponsored by the North American Society for the Study of Romanticism at the Washington Duke Inn.
The parties were usually unique and very lavish. They had expensive foods and unlimited drinks, great storytelling and involved people from high class backgrounds to people from low class backgrounds. Even though parties were held, they were not understood by people who did not partake in the lifestyle of the partygoers until the mid 1800's.
By having these parties, writers could express their emotions to others as well as share ideas for stories so that there would be a diverse following among their readers.
Lake spoke on one of more than two dozen panels during the conference. Two centuries later, there remains strong interest in the era's writers, and new technology is helping scholars break new ground.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor William Shaw discussed "New Scholarly Tools at the William Blake Archive." Shaw went over software upgrades that are used to illuminate older pictures and texts so that they can be better preserved, which will be available later this fall.
University of Amsterdam Professor Marita Mathijsen presented a paper on "The Taming of Byron in the Netherlands," which discussed her continuation of the work of Niccolas Beets, who started an effort to translate the works of Lord Byron into Dutch.
As the forum ended, participants said they had followed the panel's edict to "party like its 1799."
David L. Fitts Jr. is a English and mass communications major at North Carolina Central University. He is working as an intern this summer with Duke's Office of News and Communications.