공화주의 사상의 변용적 계승으로서의 낭만주의 시론: 셸리의 <시의 옹호>를 중심으로

Abstract

This paper aims to read Percy Bysshe Shelleys A Defence of Poetry as an attempt to revise the ideal of classical republicanism and thus newly create an intellectual community based on the notion of the Republic of Letters. As compellingly revealed in the phrase the unacknowledged legislators of the world, the ideal model of poet suggested in A Defence of Poetry implies two contradictory elements: 1) an enlightening legislator who pursues and spreads the public good; 2) a solipsistic hermit unacknowledged by the general public. Given this problem, this paper argues that these two contradictory elements implied in Shelleys notion of poet derive from the clash between Shelleys emphasis on poetrys publicity that his republicanism endorses and the reactionary nature that his republicanism inevitably accompanies in a new social order. In relation to this issue of republicanism, this paper also argues that Shelleys intense endeavor to confirm poets serious role in an intellectual public sphere comes from both his firm faith in the classical ideal of the Republic of Letters and his keen awareness of contemporary social realities whereby poetry was increasingly losing its influence on the general public.