In November 2006, the International Conference on Romanticism convened for its annual conference on the campus of Arizona State University and explored a wide range of work identified as "engaged romantic," as a mode and a practice, rather than simply as a literary historical period defined by a specific temporal spectrum (c. 1750-1850). As the introduction to the volume suggests, most writers during the period were actively engaged in the cultural articulation of the aesthetics, criticism, ethics, poetics, and politics of the age, and a large number of writers deployed their talents to help transform the public sphere, whether shaping responses to the practices of slavery or resisting the emergence of a crystallized form of Newtonianism at the foundation of Enlightenment epistemology. The intellectual and disciplinary range of the essays included in this volume pay tribute to this often neglected aspect of the revolutionary dictates of what has come to be called "Romanticism," and the following critical essays, offered by both thoroughly established and relatively new voices within Romantic Studies, examine virtually every aspect of this approach to Romantic thought and writing. Whether focused on the formal and intellectual practices at the foundation of the novel, the philosophical resonance of William Wordsworth within emergent forms of eco-criticism, the play of the transatlantic Romantic imagination, the aesthetic commitments of Romantic art and music, or the current process of pedagogical engagements, the essays sound the depths of what engaged practice can accomplish, both in the age of Romanticism itself as well as our own moment.The conference covered a broad variety of periods, languages and cultures. The overarching theme of 'Reflections' meant that many contributions were interrelated and stimulated fruitful questions and discussions. Reflections: New Directions in Modern Languages and Cultures is a coherent and tightly-focused volume.

Dr Alison Fell, senior lecturer in French, University of Leeds"Great thought has gone into the composition of this volume, particularly its division into constituent but coherent sections. Although initially springing from a Durham Modern Languages initiative, the articles included here, ranging as they do from Medieval to the modern and dealing with such diverse forms as the textual, theatrical, cinematic and artistic, are sure to interest students and scholars with an interest in cultural production and cultural studies more generally".Professor Jan Clarke, Department of French, Durham University.