Theory-wise, of course, much has been said and done already about Object Oriented Ontology (OOO). I will briefly discuss key issues revolving around OOO and how they might be relevant to reading Romantic works of art. I’m primarily concerned with demonstrating the conditions and instances of mediation between nonhuman objects working independently of human relevance and purposes in the pieces of works selected from William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, P. B. Shelley and Henry David Thoreau. It’s part of a greater scheme to approach the world of lively things not particularly disadvantaged by anthropocentricism and human-oriented semiotic conventions. Noticeable topics include, but are not limited to: the ontic self-identity of things, lively matters, the ontological unity between humans and nonhumans, the ethics of things, and the art of attentiveness, all of which I think are crucial to make this planet a sustainable place.
