Influential later eighteenth-century critics and philosophers (Stewart, Knight, Alison, Jeffrey, Godwin) argued that poetry's moral and practical benefits derive from "analytical" modes of reading rather than from the poet's instructive intentions. Frequently exploiting the philosophical "language of necessity," Wordsworth's essays and prefaces (1798-1815) protested that poetry directly improves the reader's moral code and ethical conduct. This dissertation discusses Wordsworth's criticism in the context of analytical principles of interpretation current in the 1790s, providing terms for exploring the theme of reading in early mss. of Peter Bell and The Ruined Cottage (1798-1799), the 1798 Lyrical Ballads, and later poems such as "A narrow girdle of rough stones and crags," "Resolution and Independence," "Elegiac Stanzas," and The Prelude (Book V). / These poems anticipate Wordsworth's presentation of reading as the "art of admiration" in the "Essay, Supplementary" to the 1815 Poems, and indicate a sustained search for alternatives and correctives to detached investigative approaches to the aesthetic experience. Attempting to reconcile the extremes of the credulous or fanciful response, reflecting a childlike desire to be free from all constraints, and the analytical response, fuelled by perceptions of contrast between poetic illusion and reality, Wordsworth's criticism and poetry depict the reader as the"auxiliar" of poetic genius. The purpose, traditionally undermined by critics as peremptory and egotistical, was to challenge readers to examine their basic motives in seeking poetic pleasure.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.70242 |
| Date | January 1991 |
| Creators | Tweedie, Gordon |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of English.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001255852, proquestno: AAINN72215, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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