Abstract: “Fractured Sublimity and Economic Critique: Re-assessing Value in Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”
This paper investigates Childe Harold’s Pilgimageas a Romantic text that interrogates the complex intersections of economic, aesthetic, and philosophical value during a period of profound sociopolitical upheaval. Lord Byron’s depictions of sublime landscapes and historical ruins challenge dominant notions of value by juxtaposing the commodification of cultural heritage with poetic representations that resist materialist frameworks. The poem’s fragmented narrative structure, deeply informed by Romantic irony, mirrors the disintegration of cohesive value systems in post-Napoleonic Europe, critiquing the emerging primacy of economic rationalism and its impact on cultural and historical identity.
Drawing on theoretical paradigms from economic criticism and the Romantic sublime as articulated by Burke and Kant, this study positions Byron’s treatment of ruins as both artifacts of historical decay and dynamic sites of existential reflection. The ruins of Italy and Greece, emblematic of both imperialist commodification and timeless cultural resonance, serve as loci where Byron negotiates the fraught tension between the market’s quantification of worth and the imaginative transcendence inherent in poetic inquiry. These landscapes, imbued with philosophical and affective significance, reflect Byron’s endeavor to situate literature as a counterpoint to the reductive logics of economic valuation.
By integrating Schlegel’s concept of Romantic irony, the analysis reveals how Byron’s deliberate narrative fragmentation critiques conventional hierarchies of value, proposing instead an epistemology rooted in the fluidity and multiplicity of meaning. The paper argues that Byron’s reflective poetics not only reimagine the value of art beyond the paradigms of utility and exchange but also expose the limitations of economic frameworks in capturing the existential and cultural dimensions of human experience. By embedding his critique of commodification within the layered symbolism of ruins and sublime landscapes, Byron illuminates the tension between material valuation and the immeasurable worth of historical and imaginative legacies. In Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the poet challenges the reduction of cultural artifacts to objects of economic transaction, advocating for a revaluation of art that emphasizes its role in fostering philosophical and emotional inquiry. This reconceptualization situates the poem as a profound Romantic response to the encroachment of market logic on cultural and aesthetic spheres. In reconciling aesthetic transcendence with material realities, Childe Harold emerges as a vital Romantic intervention that foregrounds literature’s capacity to critique, negotiate, and mediate between competing conceptions of value in both its historical moment and our own.
Bio: National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan
Chia-Jung Lee is an associate professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at National Sun Yat-sen University, Taiwan. She earned her PhD in English and American Studies from the University of Manchester, UK. Her research focuses on Romantic poetics, cultural memory, and narrative structures, with particular emphasis on Byron and Wordsworth. Dr. Lee’s interdisciplinary work bridges literary analysis, philosophical inquiry, and historical contextualization, exploring the interplay of identity, temporality, and the sublime in Romantic literature. Her notable publications include articles on Wordsworthian self-construction, poetic authority, and the Romantic critique of Enlightenment ideals, published in journals such as EurAmerica, Wenshan Review, and Studies in the Literary Imagination. She is an active member of the British Association for Romantic Studies and has presented internationally on topics ranging from Romantic landscapes to the commodification of cultural memory. Dr. Lee’s current research explores Byron’s engagement with historical ruins and the Romantic sublime, situating his fragmented narratives within broader debates on cultural legacy and identity.