Defined variously as a lifestyle, “a set of traits supposedly characterising Byron's texts” (Elfenbein 9) or his hallmark hero, or the “developments that allowed Byron to become a celebrity in Britain” (ibid.), Byronism is a nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon that changed significantly the relationship between author, text and audience and whose echoes resonated well beyond the customary sphere of influence of British culture. It originated in the deliberate creation by George Gordon, Lord Byron, of a distinctive and visible poetic subjectivity, and it relied on a carefully sustained current of opinion according to which Byron's poetry was in effect the expression of his innermost obsessions and tribulations, and his heroes were masks behind which the poet himself only…
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Citation: Schneider, Ana-Karina. "Byronism". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 February 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1295, accessed 26 November 2024.]
