Title: Shelley's mirrors of love
First published: 1999
Description: Shelley's Mirrors of Love confronts the myths and realities of Shelleyan narcissism and discovers an artist fiercely engaged with problems of (gender) identity, self-idolatry, and the nature of love itself. Rather than capitulating to what he called "the principle of Self," Shelley obsessively explored its temptations, its dangers, and its antidotes.

The book is largely psychobiographical in approach, working with the theories of Heinz Kohut and Jessica Benjamin, among others, as it closely analyzes Shelley's fiction, poetry, and letters.

The book offers the most comprehensive analysis to date of the poet's fluid gender identity, finding strong evidence of an "imaginative transsexualism" that allowed him to identify with real and imagined "sister-spirits" who exemplified the powers of love and sympathy, the greatest of Shelleyan ideals.

The latter force receives particular attention as the study turns to scientific theories of Shelley's day, theories that helped the poet envision how the energy of electricity, sympathy, and sexuality converge to create the kind of erotically interpenetrating universe we see at the close of Prometheus Unbound.
Subjects: English Poets, Gender identity in literature, Knowledge, Love in literature, Narcissism in literature, Poetry, Poets, English, Psychoanalysis and literature, Psychological aspects, Psychological aspects of Poetry, Psychology, Self-sacrifice in literature, Sisters in literature, Gender studies, Literary studies: 19th century, Literary Criticism, Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822, Shelley, Percy Bysshe,, Literature - Classics / Criticism, English, British Isles, English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 19th century, 1792-1822, England, S¿urs dans la litterature, Poesie, Psychanalyse et litterature, Amour dans la litterature, Devouement dans la litterature, Narcissisme dans la litterature, Identite sexuelle dans la litterature, Histoire, Aspect psychologique, Poetes anglais, Psychologie, History, Et la psychologie, Theology, Knowledge and learning
Places: England
People: Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PR5442.P74 B66 1999