The Risorgimento and English literary history, 1867-1911: the liberal heroism of Trevelyan's Garibaldi

摘要

This article explores the relationship between Italian heroism and literary history in relation to G.M. Trevelyan's Garibaldi trilogy. It firstly summarises some important features of the Victorian culture of public moralism that shaped Trevelyan's early work. It then discusses the influence of the poet, novelist and man-of-letters, George Meredith, on Trevelyan's Garibaldi books and historical practice. The comparison of Meredith and Trevelyan suggests that Trevelyan's Garibaldi trilogy should be understood as part of a project self-consciously undertaken by Victorian literary and political elites to consolidate, celebrate and, less frequently, to critique British liberal culture and politics. The article concludes that while a Mazzinian notion of dolcezza may have influenced Trevelyan's notion of the hero, his interest in the Risorgimento was ultimately motivated by the usefulness of Italy and Garibaldi in promoting what he considered to be a distinctly ‘English’1 1. ‘English’ was the term more commonly used by Trevelyan to denote the national and literary identity of the Victorians and Edwardians and ‘England’ or ‘English’ were the dominant terms of the liberal patriotic lexicon of the 1850s and 1860s. For more on this point, Parry (2006, 33) and Mandler (2006, 66). When the reference is specifically to the state, this article deploys the term ‘Britain’ or ‘British’. View all notes form of ethical patriotism, whose intellectual antecedents - Whig gradualism, constitutional compromise in the form of parliamentary monarchy and a hierarchy-inflected anti-Republicanism - stood in ambivalent relation to the concept of democratic nationality.View full textDownload full textKeywordsG.M. Trevelyan, Giuseppe Garibaldi, George Meredith, Risorgimento, literary history, liberalism, manlinessRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13532944.2010.506294