Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-255) and index.

"Romantic Literature, Race, and Colonial Encounter is a study of the origin, growth, and development of "the race idea" and its impact on the writing of the Romantic period. It discusses how race as a concept became increasingly important in defining difference and identity in Romantic period culture. Subjects including slavery, natural history, comparative anatomy, missionary, diplomatic, and travel writing are explored and texts by Coleridge, De Quincey, Mary Shelley, Byron, Equiano, and others are situated in the complex and shifting discourse of Romantic theories of race. In particular, Romantic representations of China and the "Far East" are discussed as a key site where the period's changing attitudes to human difference and variety were especially prominent."--Jacket.

SACFinal081324