Mediating Shelley's "The Zucca"

2026/06/01 by Lisa Vargo · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · #Literature: history, themes, analysis #Science Education and Perceptions #Travel Writing and Literature

paper · doi:10.1353/srm.2026.a994668

openalex publication_date 2026/06/01 · openalex created_date 2026/07/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/04

Abstract

Abstract: This essay considers how forms of mediation might illuminate one of Percy Shelley's lesser-known lyrics from Mary Shelley's edition of Posthumous Poems (1824), "The Zucca." These include the activity of editing, the translation of incomplete manuscript into a printed page that suggests completion, the opposing perspectives of poet and editor (who are husband and wife), as well as the material form of the pumpkin. Ultimately a gap exists between the poet's colonization of the plant to describe his emotional life and the zucca's nonhuman and distinct identity.

Discussions

• Lisa Vargo introduces Mary Shelley's editing of Percy Bysshe Shelley's 'The Zucca' as a form of more-than-human mediation, considering the exotic and domestic botanical implications of the poem's name [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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