The Coleridge Family: Influence, Identity and Representation

Abstract

In Literary Relations: Kinship and the Canon, 1660–1830 (2005), Jane Spencer examines the significance of kinship to the formation of a literary canon. However, Spencer examines only one father-son writing relationship — that between Dryden and his son — and does not analyse the intertextuality of their work extensively, nor address the complexity of specific familial literary conflict. As such, her study (which aims at breadth rather than depth) does not acknowledge the creative potential of the paternal bond fully; she concludes that it is better to be a metaphorical son of a successful writer, a judgement which my study of Hartley’s relationships with STC and William does not wholly support.