Intellectual debates and the French revolution
Intellectual debates and the French revolution

Summary/Abstract: Socio-political and cultural debates, which the French Revolution sparked in England between 1789 and 1795, led to a shift towards liberal and international ideas – the basis for Romantic ideology. The elder generation of Romantic poets – Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge – played an active role in the development of radical thought in England through these debates, while younger poets – Shelley, Byron and Keats – continued to draw creative energies from radical thought. This article contextualizes and analyzes the most important elements of the debate in the works of Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, Mary Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, with special attention given to the political significance attached to the aesthetic form of revolution.

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