‘The Della Cruscans: A Survey of the Criticism and Resources, 1956–2009’

The last 14 years have witnessed an unprecedented surge of critical interest in the Della Cruscans, a coterie of writers (including Robert Merry and Mary Robinson) who enjoyed a short‐lived period of considerable popularity in the late eighteenth century. Prior to the publication of Jerome McGann’s article, ‘The Literal World of the English Della Cruscans’ in 1995, only two studies of the group had been published, in 1956 and 1967, respectively. With the exception of these works, the group had been all but forgotten, and the few existing references to their work in literary histories and encyclopaedias had invariably been dismissive. More successfully than the two critics who preceded him, McGann reclaimed the Della Cruscans as a group worthy of scholarly attention, providing a sympathetic outline of their poetics and emphasising the integral role they played in the development of British romantic poetry. The response to McGann’s positive reappraisal of the group was enthusiastic, and the resulting studies advanced it in a number of different directions, although all shared an interest in the perceived transgressiveness of Della Cruscanism and the role of the satirist William Gifford in their historical devaluation. This article aims to provide a survey of all of the criticism on the movement and some of the currently available primary resources, beginning with earliest published article in 1956 and culminating with the most recent of the post‐McGann studies. It concludes by suggesting some new directions that the ongoing revaluation of the movement might take over the course of the next few years.