Blasphemy and Politics in Romantic Literature: Creativity in the Writing of Percy Bysshe Shelley

1.       Introduction

1.2. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Blasphemy and Creativity

1.3. Shelley and Romantic Religion

2.       Chapter 2: Blasphemy and Copyright in the Long Eighteenth Century, 1695-1823

2.1. Licensing of the Press and Religious Tolerance, 1698-1710

2.2. Copyright, Censorship and Class: The Statute of Anne and 'Bad Language', 1710-1745

2.3. Blasphemy, Obscenity or Sedition: John Wilkes to William Hone, 1745-1817

2.4. Chancery and the Dissemination of 'Injurious' Texts, 1817-1823

3.       Chapter 3: Blasphemy and the Shelley Canon: Queen Mab and Laon and Cythna

3.1. Queen Mab: Readership, Reputation and 'Respectability' in the 1820s

3.2. Censoring Queen Mab in the (Il)legitimate Press: William Clark, Richard Carlile, Mary Shelley

3.3. From 'God' to 'Power': Laon and Cythna to The Revolt of Islam

3.4. The Contemporary Shelley Canon

4.       Chapter 4: Vulgar Anthropomorphisms: Blasphemy, Power and the Philosophy of Language

4.1. Anthropomorphising the Abstract: Scepticism of Language in Queen Mab and Laon and Cythna

4.2. The Vitality and Epistemology of Language: 'Ode to the West Wind' and 'Mont Blanc'

5.       Chapter 5: The Promethean Conqueror, the Galilean Serpent and the Jacobin Jesus: Shelley's Interpretation(s) of Jesus Christ

5.1. Secularising and Demystifing Jesus

5.2. A Jesus in History: Reformer and Blasphemer

6.       Conclusion

6.1. From Infidel to Canonisation: Shelley's Posthumous Reputation