Reading The Eve of St Agnes

Using the 180-year history of Keats'sEve of St. Agnes as a basis for theorizing about the reading process, Stillinger's book explores the nature and whereabouts of "meaning" in complex works. A proponent of authorial intent, Stillinger argues a theoretical compromise between author and reader, applying a theory of interpretive democracy that includes the endlessly multifarious reader's response as well as Keats's guessed-at intent. Stillinger also considersthe process of constructing meaning, and posits an answer to why Keats's work is considered canonical, and why it is still being read and admired.

“"Stillinger is at his best when guiding us down the slippery path frommultiple versions to a single authoritative text."European RomanticReview”

"It is a very suggestive book, scholarly yet unfussy and broad-minded; it ranges patiently round the great questions and manages to be progressive and reactionary at once (as its author happily acknowledges on p. ix). It might even set the cat among the pigeons, a prime function of criticism."--Modern Philology"Presents one of the most coherent and convincing definitions I have encountered of what qualifies a work for canonical status...A stimulating work that addresses fundamental questions of how and why we read, teach, and write about literature." The Wordsworth Circle"Stillinger is at his best when guiding us down the slippery path from multiple versions to a single authoritative text."European Romantic Review"It is a very suggestive book, scholarly yet unfussy and broad-minded; it ranges patiently round the great questions and manages to be progressive and reactionary at once (as its author happily acknowledges on p. ix). It might even set the cat among the pigeons, a prime function of criticism."--Modern Philology

Jack Stillinger (Ph.D. Harvard) is Center for Advanced Study Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Illinois. He is the author of The Hoodwinking of Madeline and Other Essays on Keats s Poems, The Texts of Keats s Poems, the standard edition of The Poems of John Keats; Multiple Authorship and the Myth of Solitary Genius; Coleridge and Textual Instability; and Reading "The Eve of St. Agnes." He is the recipient of Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson fellowships and is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

"Shadows of Ethicsis sure to provoke surprise, debate, and constructive indignation in many of its readers."-Dominic Rainsford, University of Aarhus

Using the 180-year history of Keats'sEve of St. Agnes as a basis for theorizing about the reading process, Stillinger's book explores the nature and whereabouts of "meaning" in complex works. A proponent of authorial intent, Stillinger argues a theoretical compromise between author and reader, applying a theory of interpretive democracy that includes the endlessly multifarious reader's response as well as Keats's guessed-at intent. Stillinger also considers the process of constructing meaning, and posits an answer to why Keats's work is considered canonical, and why it is still being read and admired.

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