Wordsworth, Dialogics and the Practice of Criticism

Download or read book Wordsworth, Dialogics and the Practice of Criticism written by Don H. Bialostosky and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1992-02-28 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wordsworth's poetry has been a focus for many of the theoretical schools of criticism that comprise modern literary studies. Don Bialostosky here proposes to adjudicate the diverse claims of these numerous schools and to trace their implications for teaching. Bialostosky draws on the work of Bakhtin and his followers to create a 'dialogic' critical synthesis of what Wordsworth's readers - from Coleridge to de Man - have made of his poetry. He reveals Wordsworth's poetry as itself 'dialogically' responding to its various contexts, and opens up fruitful possibilities for criticism and teaching of Wordsworth. This challenging book uses the case of Wordsworth studies to make a far-reaching survey of modern literary theory and its implications for the practice of criticism and teaching today.