Biographia Literaria
Biographia Literaria,a work of philosophical autobiography and Romantic literary criticism, by S. T. Coleridge , published 1817 .
Originally conceived in 1814 as a short explanatory preface to the Sibylline Leaves, it rapidly expanded into a two-volume apologia for his ‘literary life and opinions’. Part I is broadly autobiographical, describing Coleridge's friendship with Southey and with the Wordsworths at Stowey, and going on to trace his struggle with the ‘dynamic philosophy’ of Kant , Fichte , and Schelling in Germany. The humorous narrative is gradually overwhelmed by Romantic metaphysics; ch. XIII contains his famous distinction between Fancy and Imagination. Part II is almost entirely critical, attacking Wordsworth's preface to the Lyrical Ballads and then marvellously vindicating the poetry itself. Coleridge concentrates on the psychology of the creative process, and...
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