Arguably the single most important long poem by a British Romantic poet, The Prelude occupied Wordsworth for most of his life. First sketches date from around 1796; a two-part version was completed by 1799, and a version in thirteen books by 1805, which incorporated for the first time Wordsworth's response to the French Revolution. Revisions to the poem continued to occupy him intermittently for another thirty years, but the poem was not published until three months after his death in 1850, under a title supplied by his wife. The poem thus has an equivocal status. Since, of Wordsworth's contemporaries, almost no one other than Coleridge and De Quincey were able to read the poem, Wordsworth's meditations on his self-development in the context of the politics and culture of his time, remained unknown and without influence until late in the nineteenth century, by which time the import of Wordsworth's concerns had long since become a question of history.

The poem has been treated as a document reflecting Wordsworth's psychobiography (Onorato) and his aesthetics of nature (Hartmann). More recently (Chandler, Lui), historicist criticism has focused with more precision on how Wordsworth engages with contemporary events, both at the local level (e.g., the peasantry of the Lake District) and on a broader canvas (in handling the crisis of the Revolution and its aftermath). At the same time, questions have been raised about Wordsworth's political stance and whether he attempts to position himself as a historical figure in his poem. Opposed to such readings of Wordsworth's intentions, other scholars (Bate, Kroeber) suggest that the focus on history (especially the historicist's production of "nature" as a cultural category) effaces Wordsworth's ecological perspective, from which we have perhaps much to learn -- especially in the 1990s. In line with this approach, it could also be argued that Wordsworth's rhetoric in The Prelude argues for a more situated and embodied conception of experience than we have been prepared to recognize until recently.

Recent critics and editors of the poem (Parrish, Gill, Wu) have tended to prefer the earlier 1805 (or even 1799) version of the poem over the heavily revised 1850 version. In this respect, Wordsworth criticism has foregrounded a set of bibliographical issues that is now manifest in Romantic studies generally, first versions usually being printed in preference to a version authorized by a poet's "final" intentions. While this reinserts a poem within the (non-canonical) process of textual production and reception, often with interesting results (cf. McGann's anthology of Romantic literature), it may mystify the process of canon-formation by obscuring the revision process through which a text emerges from the context in which it was produced.

In our study of this poem, then, and its relation to Wordsworth's status and reputation as a poet, we will focus in particular on three issues:

1. The revision history of the poem, and its place in an ongoing debate about the editing and publication of Romantic texts. We will examine manuscript evidence (available in the Cornell Wordsworth editions), as well as printed versions of the poem, and consider Wordsworth's revisionary practices in successive versions of the poem.

2. The history/nature dimension of The Prelude. How far is Wordsworth aware of, or interested in, the historical forces shaping the London, the France, or the many rural scenes of The Prelude? We will examine how such issues as changes in land use, the plight of the rural and urban poor, or the Revolution, are represented in contemporary documentation, and set these alongside Wordsworth's accounts. We will test Bewell's claim that would see Wordsworth as a type of late 18th Century anthropologist in this poem.

3. A phenomenology of Wordsworth's experiences in The Prelude. To what extent do issues of self-presentation, Wordsworth's avowed aim of justifying his poetic vocation, or his insistence on celebrating the imagination, vitiate his handling of experiential evidence? Or does Wordsworth's poem point to a more situated and embodied conception of existence, a type of internalized ecology of the self-in-nature?

Required text:
William Wordsworth, The Prelude: 1799, 1805, 1850, ed. Wordsworth, Abrams, and Gill (Norton).

Recommended:
Stephen Gill, Wordsworth: The Prelude (Cambridge U. P.)

Bibliography. Recent articles, book chapters, and a few book titles on The Prelude.

Schedule

References to The Prelude are to the 1805 text

Jan 7. Introductions. Historical context; Coleridge; structure of poem; critics

Jan 14. Memory and childhood: Books I.271-640, & II

Jan 21. The French Revolution: Books X & XI

Jan 28. Education and Books: Book V; Imagination, esp. VI.488-572; XI.257-396; XIII.1-119

Feb 4. Revision history I: 1799 / 1805 / 1850; the Cornell Wordsworth editions

Abstract: Wu, "Editing Intentions" (Jason Snart)

Feb 11. Revision history II: critical reception (e.g., Gill, Stillinger, Leader, etc.)

Abstract: Jump, "Tendencies in Wordsworth's Prelude Revisions" (Carol-Ann Farkas)
Abstract: Jack Stillinger, "Textual Primitivism" (Brendan Wild)
Abstract: Zachary Leader, "Wordsworth, Revision, and Personal Identity" (Shelley Sikora)

Feb 18. Reading week

Feb 25. Historicist approaches I: e.g., Chandler, Bewell, Liu

Abstract: Thomas, "Coleridge, Wordsworth and the New Historicism" (Stephen King)
Abstract: Erdman, "The Man Who Was Not Napoleon" (Barbara Simler)

Mar 4. Historicist approaches II: 18th C science, history, etc.

Abstract: Friedman, "History in the Background of Wordsworth's 'Blind Beggar.'" (Stephen King)
Abstract: Young, "'For thou wert there': History, Erasure, and Subscription in The Prelude" (Rob Summers)
Abstract: Ferris, "Where Three Paths Meet: History, Wordsworth, and the Simplon Pass" (Lori Wiens)
Project: Cities and Book VII (Carol-Ann and Barbara)

Mar 11. Phenomenology I: becoming Wordsworth

Reading: Becoming Wordsworth: Onorato, Miall, Grob
Abstract: Heffernan, "The Presence of the Absent Mother in Wordsworth's Prelude" (Jennifer Chambers)

Mar 18. Phenomenology II: psychology of mind / nature / gender

Abstract: Blake, "Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Wordsworth: The Romantic Poet as a Woman" (Jennifer Chambers)
Abstract: Spivak, "Sex and History in The Prelude (1805)" (Carol-Ann Farkas)
Abstract: Bartlett, "'Inscrutable Workmanship': Music and Metaphors . . ." (Jason Snart)

Mar 25. Other critical issues / approaches

Abstract: Newlyn, "Lamb, Lloyd, London: A Perspective on Book Seven of The Prelude" (Barbara Simler)
Abstract: Magnusson, "The search for 'Perfect form' . . . " (Shelley Sikora)
Project: Julia and Vaudracour, Bk IX (Jason, Jen, Stephen)
Project: Poetry, painting, and landscape (Rob Summers)

Apr 1. The Prelude, Wordsworth, and the Romantic period and beyond

Project: Dorothy Wordsworth and The Prelude (Lori Wiens)
Abstract: Hopkins, "Wordsworth's Voices: Ideology and Self-Critique in The Prelude" (Brendan Wild)
Abstract: De Man, "Time and History in Wordsworth" (Lori Wiens)
Readings: De Man (1984); Bate (1991)

Apr 8. Conclusions

Project: The interplay of memory in The Prelude (Shelley Sikora)
Project: Travel and The Prelude (Brendan Wild)

Student Term Paper

Jennifer Chambers: "The Maid of Buttermere" Leading to "Vaudracour & Julia": The Growth Continuum from Books VII to IX of The Prelude."

Resources

1. A very useful Romanticism Chronology is edited by Laura Mandell and Alan Liu. This provides an important resource for following the dates of significant publications, political developments, etc.

2. A new Romanticism home page and journal (from Oxford University). The first issue of the journal was published in February 1996. It appears quarterly.

3. Developed by Alan Liu, with contributions from many others, The Voice of the Shuttle is a rich resource for internet links in all the humanities disciplines. For Romanticism studies in particular, go direct to the Romanticism page.

4. Web-Cite, an online bibliographical service, including links to complete online articles. The best place to start is to click on Browse.

Last updated Saturday, May 10, 1997