Wordsworth in History: Radical Politics and the Poetry of the Poor, 1793-98

Park, Chan-Kil (1993) Wordsworth in History: Radical Politics and the Poetry of the Poor, 1793-98. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis is yet another attempt to read Wordsworth's poetry within its contemporary historical context. In particular, it centres on those crucial five years 1793-98 during which Wordsworth pursued the career of a professional poet in the midst of his political disillusionment both as a republican ideologue and as a social reformer. The historically informed reading of Wordsworth's poetry attempted in this thesis, aims, on the one hand, to understand the contemporary topical significance of Wordsworth's poetic and non-poetic writings. On the other, it is focused on Wordsworth's problematic representations of the poor, particularly the figures of a soldier's wife and an impotent old man, in order to illuminate the political ambivalence of Wordsworth's poetic commitment to the suffering poor. Ultimately, such a reading purposes to understand Wordsworth's political frustration and poetical achievement of those five years as the product of Wordsworth's different responses to the contemporary socio-political reality by answering familiar, but still important questions: What was the content of Wordsworth's radical politics? How did Wordsworth's representation of the poor evolve in relation to his changing political stance? And how did the Wordsworthian poetic self grow out of his problematic poetic engagement with the poor?

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Adviser: Richard Cronin
• Keywords: British & Irish literature
• Date of Award: 1993
• Depositing User: Enlighten Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:1993-74524
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 27 Sep 2019 17:57
• Last Modified: 27 Sep 2019 17:57
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/74524