Abstract: This book addresses the main non-English Romanticisms of the British Isles. It begins by challenging the terms of its own title by asking ‘what is Romanticism’, and ‘what does the term ‘national literature’ mean’? It then proceeds to explain and define the answers to these questions, providing certain triggers by the presence of which a national literature can be recognized, and also deals with two major problems which are holding back the development of a new and broader understanding of British Isles Romanticisms: the survival of outdated assumptions in ostensibly more modern paradigms, and a lack of understanding of the full range of dialogues and relationships across the literatures of these islands. The theorists whose work chiefly inform the book are Bakhtin, Fanon, and Habermas, although they do not define its arguments, and an alertness to the ways in which other literary theories inform each other is present throughout the book.

Keywords: non-English Romanticisms, national literature, Bakhtin, Fanon, Habermas, literary theory