{"id":2740,"date":"2019-11-25T11:38:16","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T11:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2740"},"modified":"2019-11-25T11:38:16","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T11:38:16","slug":"romantic-reimaginings-mapping-keatss-progress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=2740","title":{"rendered":"Romantic Reimaginings: Mapping Keats’s Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"

Romantic Reimaginings is a BARS blog series which seeks to explore the ways in which texts of the Romantic era continue to resonate. The blog is curated by Eleanor Bryan. If you would like to publish an article in the series, please email ebryan@lincoln.ac.uk.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Today on the blog, Suzie Grogan discusses the reimagining of Keats’s journey through the\u00a0Mapping Keats’s Progress<\/em> website.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As students of Romantic poet John Keats we might sit, hushed, in a library surrounded by books. We may have open next to us the latest critical thinking, the biographies by Roe, Motion, Gittings, Bate. In our files we may have, printed off, the latest academic papers or edited collections of the same.\u00a0 Or we could be trawling JSTOR or British Library sites, intent on ensuring we miss nothing, note everything.<\/p>\n

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Mapping Keats’s Progress website<\/p><\/div>\n

But reimagine that scene. We could be sitting quietly at a computer, or in a caf\u00e9 with our tablet, perusing the Mapping Keats\u2019s Progress<\/em><\/a> website at http:\/\/johnkeats.uvic.ca\/<\/a> notebook beside us, finding and re-finding, reflecting and diverging and walking with Keats through his development as man and poet, using location and life events to associate and connect in a way that is more difficult when surrounded by the paper equivalent. Books are a wonderful thing, but referencing and cross referencing is a demanding and time consuming process for all scholars, and is exclusive of those with a general interest who have only the most minimal access to the work. Re-imagining the critical book \u2013 or indeed the book in general terms \u2013 is inclusionary and revolutionary. We must ensure the relevance of the Romantic is taken on into the 21st<\/sup> century. Widening access is a necessary part of this process.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Mapping Keats\u2019s Progress<\/em><\/a> \u00a0(MKP) is a project that, despite already having over 150 \u2018micro-chapters\u2019 is still developing alongside our knowledge and interpretation of Keats\u2019s life and letters. The architect and main brain behind the project is Dr Kim Blank, Professor of English at the University of Victoria, Canada. His published work includes books on William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley, edited books of original essays on Shelley and 19th-century poetry and he is author of numerous papers and articles. His credentials are impeccable and his dedication to an understanding of Keats\u2019s development is extraordinary. He says:<\/p>\n

\u2018MKP is a critical work, biographical study, and a resource for Keats studies. I am also aware that, professionally, the site occupies the odd space of scholarly limbo-accomplishment: I didn\u2019t want or need a grant (these days a grant is apparently some indicator of success and credibility), and neither is it refereed by peers, though continuing feedback from peers governs some of the site\u2019s directions\u2019<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The website states three main aims:<\/p>\n