Afterword

Abstract

“A literary event can continue to have an effect only if those who come after it still or once again respond to it — if there are readers who again appropriate the past work or authors who want to imitate, outdo, or refute it,” writes Jauss.¹ As I argued at the start of my first chapter, the reception-history of the poet and his work are still intertwined. Keats can be used in a grim shorthand, where interest in Keats simultaneously indicates the sexual orientation of a speaker or character and implies his early death.

Thus you may make a good wholesome loaf, with your own leaven in it, of my fragments.

Keats