The Faith of Romanticism

Dialectical Synthesis and Norman Mailer’s English Romantic Vision

Authors

  • James R. Fleming University of Florida Author

Keywords:

English Romanticism, negative capability, dialectical synthesis, The Executioner's Song, The Castle in the Forest, machismo and power

Abstract

Norman Mailer had a unique ability to carry contrary notions simultaneously, without resorting to simple, practical resolution in order to resolve dilemmas. Mailer is part of the Romantic tradition in terms of his understanding of reality. He does not wholly resist resolution to incommensurable situations and concepts. Instead, he takes Keats’s notion of negative capability a step further than Keats and his contemporaries.

Author Biography

  • James R. Fleming, University of Florida

    James R. Fleming is a Kirkland PhD Fellow in English at the University of Florida. His critical and creative writings have appeared in a variety of journals and magazines. He is currently writing a dissertation exploring the influence of Hamlet’s soliloquies on English Romantic poetry.

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Published

2026-03-14

Issue

Vol. 3 No. 1 (2009): Beyond Fiction

Section

Articles