In the winter of 1798-99, shut up in the freezing German town of Goslar, William Wordsworth began producing a series of lyrical fragments that appeared first in letters written to Coleridge and emerged eventually as source texts for The Prelude . These lyrics are revolutionary because they construct a new version of the autobiographical 'I'. The Revolutionary 'I' explores the numerous voices of the poetic speaker 'Wordsworth' and their relationship to the historical figure who shared the same name.

Autorentext

Ashton Nichols is Associate Professor of English at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

Inhalt

Preface: The Prelude as Prologue Silencing the (Other) Self: Wordsworth as 'Wordsworth!' in 'There was a boy' The Politics of Self Presentation: Wordsworth as Revolutionary Actor in a Literary Drama Sounds into Speech: The Two-Part Prelude of 1799 as Dialogic Dramatic Monologue Coleridge as Catalyst to Autobiography: The Wordsworthian Self as Therapeutic Gift, 1804-1805 Dialogizing Dorothy: Voicing the Feminine as Spousal Sister in The Prelude Colonizing Consciousness: Culture as Identity in Wordsworth's Prelude and Walcott's Another Life Endnotes Bibliography Index