W.B. Yeats: Realms of The Romantic Imagination, by John Nkemngong Ngengasong, Cuvillier Verlag, 2011

Abstract

In this thoroughly researched and stimulating work, John Nkemngong Ngengasong uncovers the intricacies of romantic Imagination that pervade the poetry of Yeats, and argues that albeit the poet emerged and wrote within the era of modernism in British literary tradition, it will be erroneous for any critic to label him solely as a modernist. As has been the case with romantic theorists, there is the on-going debate of what the character of a romantic work is. The problematic is whether romanticism entails the works of a particular literary age, ranging mainly from 1798 with the publication of the Lyrical Ballads to 1830; or any work that showcases the tenets of Romanticism despite the period. Nkengasong has thus added his input to this romantic question seemingly aligning with the camp of critics like Jerome Mcgann and Morse Peckham who aver that there are particular ideological and conceptual representations which characterised the works of the writers of the period that are prevalent in the works of other writers who were not part of the literary movement called Romanticism. The study of these works according to these critics is enriching and enlarges the ethos of Romanticism.