Dr Paul Whickman: Blasphemy & Politics in Romantic Literature

Dr Paul Whickman is at Derby Theatre on Thursday 12 November, talking about blasphemy and literary censorship in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It's a mid-morning session, starting at 11:30am and running for an hour, held in the Community Hub.

Whickman focuses on Percy Bysshe Shelley, whose poetry was frequently condemned for its apparent blasphemy, obscenity and political subversion. He argues that literary blasphemy is inextricable from politics, and makes the case for 'irreverence' as something that both inspires and necessitates new poetic creativity. He also draws parallels to literary culture as it stands today, so the talk reaches beyond the Romantic period and into the present.

If you've never come across Shelley, he's one of the big names of the Romantic era, and his work often put him at odds with the authorities of his day. Whickman's talk looks at why that was, and how the act of pushing against those boundaries actually drove the poetry forward. It's a good way into the period if you're interested in how literature and politics tangled back then, and how those same tensions still show up in the books and writing we read now.

The session is free, so there's nothing to lose if you fancy a morning of literary history. It's on Thursday 12 November at 11:30am in the Community Hub at Derby Theatre, and it lasts an hour.