This is a study of the emergence of William Wordsworth’s literary reputation during his lifetime. It is constructed as a variety of biography, organized chronologically in order to attempt a fuller sense of the negotiation of public image and reputation that went on between Wordsworth and his audiences.
Mikhail Bakhtin’s notion of dialogism structures the study as a series of “conversations,” interconnected and moving outward from self, to intimate group or coterie, to public, reviewers, and culture at large. The coterie and members of it have a large part to play in Wordsworth’s emerging style. The evidence drawn upon for each “conversation” moves from biography to letters to published poems and prose works to published reviews of those works, again roughly describing a movement outward from self to coterie to culture at large.
The “conversations” appeal to two or more different kinds of audience, however, because of a “multi-voiced” feature of Wordsworth’s published collections, especially noticeable in the critical success of the sonnet form. Further, members of the coterie, notably Coleridge, later emerge as important interpreters, advocates, and critics themselves, adding to the critical success of William Wordsworth in the larger cultural conversation.
Ultimately, Wordsworth is recognized for his contribution – a triumph of his confidence in his own style, as well as the education of a new kind of reader that now engages with Wordsworth’s poetry at a level of intimacy that makes the reader feel like a member of the coterie.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/183 |
| Date | 02 August 2007 |
| Creators | Lane, Steven M. |
| Contributors | Blank, G. Kim |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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