Introduction

Abstract

The New Shelley represents a collection of pictures of Percy Bysshe Shelley taken in the late 1980s by a number of photographers, each bringing different attitudes and approaches to the subject. These photographers have focused on different features from different angles: some went for close-ups, others for broader perspectives; some took profiles, others full-frontal views; some wanted to capture the visionary gaze, while others wanted to expose the virtuoso intellect. But perhaps this volume should not be considered an exhibition of single works by single hands, but as a photo-montage, a re-picturing without a final or clear image of Shelley. Shelley himself would certainly have liked the idea of undecidability and refiguration. And since Shelley was keen to point out that figurative language allows meaning to be approximated via unapprehended relations, he might also have approved of the extended metaphor used to describe a volume that witnesses his presence in a poetic scene just short of his two-hundredth birthday.