Angela Esterhammer is a literary scholar whose work focuses on the Romantic period. Her research delves into the intricate relationship between creativity and literary production, exploring how spontaneous inspiration shaped the works of writers.
Print and Performance in the 1820s explores a key decade of cultural change, focusing on fiction, periodicals, and theatrical performances in metropolitan centres such as London, Edinburgh, and Paris. Combining literary and cultural studies with media and performance history, it illuminates the importance of the late-Romantic age.
The professional practice of improvisation is examined for its influence on Romantic ideals, particularly through the lens of poetic improvisation in nineteenth-century fiction. Angela Esterhammer delves into how this artistic spontaneity shapes literary expression and reflects the cultural context of the era, highlighting the intersection of creativity and emotion in Romantic literature.
This book develops a new context and methodology for reading Romantic literature by exploring philosophies of language from the period 1785-1835. It explores the moral, political, and legal philosophy of Reid, Bentham, Kant and the German Idealists, Humboldt, and Coleridge, and literary texts by Coleridge, Godwin, Hölderlin, and Kleist.
Two short stories address Prague's relationship to Western Europe, particularly Germany, and the distemper of Europe at the turn of the century