British Romanticism is part of European Romanticism and British writers drew inspiration from personal and cultural links with mainland Europe as well as the many forms of Continental travel. This international conference will explore the manifold relations between Britain and Europe during the Romantic period, taking advantage of recent work on transnational circulations and exchanges and a growing interest in comparative methodology.

The conference will question stereotypes of Great Britain as insular by highlighting the island-nation’s European identity and its participation in a pan-European Romanticism shaped by transnational cultural dialogue and the cross-fertilization of art forms and disciplines.  The aim is to uncover the channels and mechanisms by which Romantic ideas and influences were conveyed across national and disciplinary boundaries and to examine the role of individuals, communities and institutions in this complex transmission process.

As well as directing attention to the often-overlooked international dimension of British Romanticism, the conference aims, by bringing together scholars working in Britain and on mainland Europe, to help develop the expanding research network on European Romanticism.

Held at Monte Verità, an international conference centre in Ascona in the Swiss canton of Ticino which was formerly the site of a utopian community attracting intellectuals from across Europe, the conference will be divided between three plenary lectures and twenty panel sessions. There will also be a public lecture on J.M.W. Turner and the Italian Lakes, as well as an optional excursion to Lake Como.

Topics addressed include the following:

• British Romanticism and Italy
• British Romanticism and Scandinavia
• British Romanticism and France
• European Romantic Historicism
• late Romanticism
• travel and material culture
• Romanticism and the environment
• Romantic women’s networks
• European Romanticism and / in Britain.
• Romantic mediations and mediating figures
• Romantic disseminations and circulations
• Romantic theories of ‘Europe’
• European Romantic aesthetics
• Romantic Europhobia and Europhilia
• Romantic exile and displacement
• British Romanticism and Continental philosophy
• British Romanticism and Continental science
• Britain’s Four Nations and Europe

Plenary Speakers: Christoph Bode, Biancamaria Fontana, Paul Hamilton, and Nicola Moorby.

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