The Masks of Keats

This book surveys the poetic endeavour of John Keats and urges that his true poetry is uniquely constituted by being uttered through three artificial masks, rather than through the natural voice of his quotidian self. Keats's great achievement, the book argues, can only be ascertained by means of a resuscitation of the defunct critical category of 'genius', as that informs his use of the masks. The Masks of Keats thus constitutes a criticism of and rebuke to the deconstructive approach, which must treat all texts as equal and must entirely forgo the conception of quality.