
Wordsworth's Slumber and the Problematics of Reading (Paperback)
Brian Caraher (author)- Temporarily unavailable
Stay one step ahead and let us notify you when this item is next available to order
Email me when available
Enter your email below and we will notify you when this item is next available to order.

Thank you
We will contact you when this item is next available to order.
A critical study of the interpretive problems surrounding readings of one of Wordsworth's best-known lyrics.
Wordsworth's "Slumber" and the Problematics of Reading engages in detail both the nature and the implications of what can be called literary pragmatics. It offers a new interpretation of Wordsworth's "A slumber did my spirit seal" as well as "Strange fits of passion" and "She dwelt among untrodden ways," making a major contribution to an ongoing interpretive debate concerning the first poem and the theoretical issues to which is gives rise. It also provides new ways to contextualize Wordsworth's so-called Lucy poems as well as Coleridge's appropriations of them in 1799.
Caraher analyzes solipsism and strange fantasies of death as they surface in readings of Wordsworth's lyric and provides critical examinations of the rhetoric, assumptions, and evidences of reading on the part of many of Wordsworth's most famous critics. He then makes a strong case for the theoretical viability of the work of John Dewey and Stephen Pepper for the field of literary studies, especially for theories of literary reading, theories of evidence, and the logic of literary inquiry.
Caraher's identification of the "problematic" of Wordsworth's poem gives direction to a powerful inquiry into the poem's meanings, its reader's judgments, and its culture's pathologies. He makes a significant contribution to the ongoing discussion concerning pragmatism in literary studies and to the understanding of Wordsworth and the theory of reading.
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
ISBN: 9780271026244
Number of pages: 292
Weight: 594 g
Dimensions: 229 x 152 x 20 mm
You may also be interested in...
Please sign in to write a review
Sign In / Register
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?
Click & Collect
Please note that owing to current COVID-19 restrictions, many of our shops are closed. Find out more by clicking here.