Re-Reading The Excursion - Bushell, Sally

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Résumé :
Re-Reading The Excursion: Narrative, Response and the Wordsworthian Dramatic Voice transforms contemporary critical understanding of The Excursion and of the place of this long poem in the Wordsworthian canon. Sally Bushell argues that the poem, which has suffered at the hands of critics for most of the twentieth century, has been unfairly judged according to a Coleridgean rather than a Wordsworthian definition of philosophy-that it has been read as a didactic work, rather than one which uses its dramatic form to teach its readers to think for themselves. She offers a new reading, based on her view that The Excursion is about providing the readers with moral habits and mental constructs by which to learn, not simply telling them what to think. The conclusion reached is that Wordsworth is not just the egotistical poet of The Prelude, interested largely in the development of his own imaginative powers, but one who goes on to explore the limits of subjectivity and the importance of different kinds of imaginative links between individuals.

Biographie:
Sally Bushell completed her Ph.D. at Queens' College, Cambridge in 1999. She is now lecturer in Romantic Studies and Co-Director of The Wordsworth Centre at Lancaster University. She is also currently co-editing the Cornell edition of The Excursion (forthcoming). This is her first full length critical work.

Sommaire:
Contents: Introduction; The poet's voice: Disappointed expectations; Ventiloquizing through another man's mouth: Coleridge; Impertinent babbling: Hazlitt and Jeffrey; The voice of speaking communication: Lamb; Dramatic composition, dramatic definition: Defining the dramatic poem; Internalised dramatic conventions; Indirectness; In which they differ: characterisation; In which they resemble each other: textual transposition; Dramatic composition; A performative philosophy: Context or content: i. ideology; Context or content: ii. Religion; Performative structures: i. Dialogue; Performative structures: ii. Walking and talking; A context for response: The historical context: reading aloud; Contextualising affective response; The poetic context: i. The embedded narrative; The poetic context: ii. Retelling Margaret's tale; Making the reader active: Doubling response: Margaret and the sentimental; Unsettling the reader; The twice-told tale; The problem of the poet; Different ways of seeing: Seen through a tender haze: the epitaph form; We see, then, as we feel: subjective difference; Meeting at the midway point: subjective transcendence; Narrative Memory: The minds of men; Telling tales in The Prelude; Narrative memory in The Excursion; Narrative memory and the poetic act; The poet and his community; Bibliography; Index.