Critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres. Romanticism offers guidance through the diversity of uses and meanings of the word 'romantic', not in terms of fixed definitions or essential qualifying characteristics, but rather in giving a helpful framework for questions and exploration.The focus throughout tends to be on the Western European cultural world of the latter half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th, as befits English literary study, but the context is far broader.