Re-Reading the Excursion: Narrative, Response and the Wordsworthian Dramatic Voice

Abstract

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.

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