| Abstrakt: |
This essay aims to discuss Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem The Mask of Anarchy within its historical context and in relation to contemporary critical debates. The paper intends to explore Shelley's own response to the arbitrary power that engendered the violence of the Peterloo Massacre on 10 August 1819, during a demonstration in favour of Parliamentary reform. The essay opens by recalling the remarkable phenomenon of the radical free press that was produced in reaction to Peterloo, giving rise to what has been called a 'culture of resistance'. It then attempts to explore the intricacy of Shelley's own ideological views, together with the creative process that enabled him to turn The Mask of Anarchy into a visionary poem, both aesthetically autonomous and politically interventionist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
