Afterlives: Shelley's Transformative Rhetoric in Queen Mab Note 17

The essay discusses the scope of Percy Bysshe Shelley's transformative rhetoric centred around the body and its potentially revolutionary transformation within the nature/culture landscape, especially through the discourse on vegetarian diet. The topic of the essay is explored through work by Timothy Morton on Shelley's vegetarianism and also on 'dark ecology', trying to juxtapose the concept of diet on the one side, and the idea of ecological awareness on the other side with revolutionary/reformist intentions inscribed in Shelley's transformative rhetoric of his vegetarian discourse. The main focus of the essay is Shelley's A Vindication of Natural Diet as part of lengthy notes for Queen Mab (printed in 1813), close read as the part of the whole textual body within which it appears. The topic of the essay is explored through the reception of Shelley's poetry in the context of ecocriticism trying to address contemporary ecological issues and its reminiscences within Western civilization.

Automated summary

This essay discusses Percy Bysshe Shelley's transformative rhetoric, focusing on the body and its potentially revolutionary transformation within the nature/culture landscape, particularly through his discourse on vegetarianism. It examines Timothy Morton's work on Shelley's vegetarianism and 'dark ecology' to juxtapose the concept of diet with ecological awareness and the reformist intentions in Shelley's rhetoric. The essay closely analyzes Shelley's A Vindication of Natural Diet as part of his larger work, Queen Mab (printed in 1813), within the context of the reception of Shelley's poetry in ecocriticism, aiming to address contemporary ecological issues and their echoes in Western civilization.