Divided from his Contemporaries: A Foucauldian Reading of Lord Byron's Don Juan

مطالعات زبان و ترجمه

Article 3, Volume 47, Issue 4, February 2015, Pages 51-68   

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/lts.v47i4.32136

Authors

Amir Riahi Nouri^{* 1}; Fazel Asadi Amjad²

¹Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

²Department of English Language and Literature, kharzami University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

A noteworthy fashion of objectification of the subject in modern societies_ in reference to Michel Foucault_ is dividing practices through which individuals are silenced and become marginalized. In terms of Foucault's dividing practices, the present article delves into reasons why Lord Byron was stigmatized and divided from his contemporary poets. With this end in view, the paper sheds light on the propensity romantic intellectuals had to construct a precedent for a perfect society in the aftermath of the French Revolution, the poet's imagination, and the Napoleonic Wars. Furthermore, the research endeavors to survey the vitriolic remarks directed to the alleged immorality existed in his Don Juan. Finally, Lord Byron's pessimistic and political response to his contemporaries' idealistic penchant for a perfect society and their vituperative comments on the publication of his masterpiece was elucidated in each section.

Keywords

History; New Historicism; Ideology; Waterloo War; Power

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