“Strange Sight this Congress!”. Byron’s The Age of Bronze (1823)…

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_article_11263
dc.title	“Strange Sight this Congress!”. Byron’s The Age of Bronze (1823) and the Congress of Verona
dc.contributor.author	Vigus James
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.type	Research Article
dc.language.iso	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/riviste/english-literature/2022/1/strange-sight-this-congress-byrons-the-age-of-bron/
dc.description.abstract	Byron’s satirical poem The Age of Bronze, a ‘hit’ at the Congress of Verona, targets the sycophancy of artists who celebrated the Congress and other manifestations of political power. The Age of Bronze asserts a different, more active and critical task for the artist, than the decorativeness expected within the European Congress system. “I am Diogenes”, states the poet, speaking truth to power in an age of obfuscation. Byron’s biting allusions to prominent public poetry and sculpture are selectively compared with other contemporary satire. The antisemitic terms of Byron’s critique of global financialisation are analysed, as is Byron’s self-conscious undermining of his chosen poetic form.
dc.relation.ispartof	English Literature
dc.relation.ispartof	Vol. 9 \| December 2022
dc.issued	2023-04-13
dc.dateAccepted	2023-12-23
dc.dateSubmitted	2022-11-28
dc.identifier.issn
dc.identifier.eissn	2420-823X
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2022/01/002
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	British Romanticism
dc.subject	Byron
dc.subject	Congress of Verona
dc.subject	Cultural patriotism
dc.subject	European Romanticism
dc.subject	Satire

Research Article
open access peer reviewed

“Strange Sight this Congress!”. Byron’s The Age of Bronze (1823) and the Congress of Verona

James Vigus Queen Mary University of London

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abstract

Byron’s satirical poem The Age of Bronze, a ‘hit’ at the Congress of Verona, targets the sycophancy of artists who celebrated the Congress and other manifestations of political power. The Age of Bronze asserts a different, more active and critical task for the artist, than the decorativeness expected within the European Congress system. “I am Diogenes”, states the poet, speaking truth to power in an age of obfuscation. Byron’s biting allusions to prominent public poetry and sculpture are selectively compared with other contemporary satire. The antisemitic terms of Byron’s critique of global financialisation are analysed, as is Byron’s self-conscious undermining of his chosen poetic form.

Published

April 13, 2023

Accepted

Dec. 23, 2023

Submitted

Nov. 28, 2022

Language

Keywords: Satire • Cultural patriotism • European Romanticism • Congress of Verona • Byron • British Romanticism

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/EL/2420-823X/2022/01/002

Copyright: © 2022 James Vigus. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

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