Black lives matter for Romantic poets: Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge on slavery

That many writers and thinkers have been in the forefront of the campaign to end discrimination against black people is a well-known fact. It is perhaps less well known that the first writers to take a decided stance on the issue of racial discrimination were the English Romantics. Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge were all born before or in the year when slavery was abolished in England (1772), but they grew up at a time when serfdom still existed in Scotland and slavery was still legal in the British Empire, and they were witness to the hot debate over abolitionism that took place during their lifetime. In fact, they took part in that debate, clearly taking sides with those who thought that slavery and racial discrimination were unjust and unethical, let alone being legal. The English Romantic poets reacted to the legal and social mistreatment of black people in, predictably, different ways: Blake and Wordsworth in powerful lyrics; Coleridge in the impassioned prose of his social and political essays. In all three cases, the result was an unmistakable rejection of racial discrimination.

Relatore

Arturo Cattaneo è Professore Ordinario di Letteratura Inglese presso l'Università Cattolica di Milano. Ha pubblicato libri e saggi in italiano e in inglese. Tra i libri, un lungo saggio creativo, Shakespeare e l'amore (Einaudi, Torino 2019). È autore di A Short History of English Literature (Mondadori, Milano 2019), e di una serie di storie antologiche della letteratura inglese per le scuole superiori (Literary Journeys - Connecting ideas l’ultima, edita da Signorelli, Milano). Ha pubblicato due romanzi: Ci vediamo a settembre (2010, Sedizioni) e La notte inglese (2012, Mondadori).

Moderatrice

Laura Cavaleri - Responsabile Area Lingue Mondadori Education