Discussion Group: Contemplation, Creativity and 'Ideal Realism': British Romanticism in Dialogue with Daoism
During his stay at Barnard Castle in the county Durham on 28 October 1799, Samuel Taylor Coleridge was obsessed with the image of what he called an 'Eddy rose'. In his notebook, he records: '-River Greta near its fall into the Tees-Shootings of water thread down the slope of the huge green stone-The white Eddy-rose that blossom'd up against the stream in the scollop, by fits & starts, obstinate in resurrection-It is the life that we live' (CN I, 495). I argue that Coleridge's vivid description of the 'Eddy-rose' resonates profoundly with the Daoist yin-yang symbol. This talk forms part of my PhD thesis, which offers the first systematic study of the intersections between British Romanticism and Daoism, examining both their conceptual affinities and historical encounters between the 1790s--1820s. From a philosophical perspective, this study argues that British Romanticism and Daoism can be read as mutually illuminating intellectual frameworks, particularly when central Daoist concepts are brought into dialogue with the philosophical thought of Romantic writers such as S. T. Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and John Keats.
In this talk, I begin by investigating contemplations of 'the spherical' as a fundamental form of nature in both traditions. I then turn to their shared pathways of creativity, with particular attention to the epistemological and aesthetic implications of these approaches. Finally, I articulate the concept of 'Ideal Realism' as a philosophical framework for decoding myth in both British Romanticism and Daoist cosmology.
Serena Qihui Pei has recently completed her PhD at University College London. Her research explores the intersections between British Romanticism and Sinology, with a particular emphasis on Daoism. She is the recipient of the British Association for Romantic Studies Stephen Copley Research Award and the UK Turing Scheme Grant. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, The Coleridge Bulletin, and the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.
