The Absent God in the Works of William Wordsworth

by Eliza Borkowska

Overview

Called by one of its reviewers "Wordsworth's biographia literaria," this book takes its reader on a fascinating journey into the mind of the poet whose attitude to God and religion points to a major shift in Western culture. The monograph probes the philosophical foundations of Wordsworth's religious outlook, drawing attention to this First Generation Romantic poet as the author who happened to record in his verse the rise to prominence of some of the intellectual and spiritual challenges and the most troublesome uncertainties that have defined Western man ever since. The book constitutes a self-contained whole and can be read independently. Simultaneously, it creates an unusual duet with the companion volume, The Presence of God in the Works of William Wordsworth. These two works can be regarded as contraries--or negatives: one offering an ironically positive reading of Wordsworth's religious discourse, the other offering a reading which is positively negative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780367641368
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	05/31/2023
Series:	Routledge Studies in Romanticism
Pages:	214
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Eliza Borkowska (https: //www.elizaborkowska.com/info) is Associate Professor of Literature at SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw and the author of But He Talked of the Temple of Man's Body: Blake's Revelation Un-Locked (2009). She is currently working as a co-author on the first translation of Blake's Jerusalem into Polish.

Table of Contents

ONE "Go forward, and look back"—

Wordsworth’s Theologies of the Future and Past Encounters

TWO "How exquisitely the individual Mind / . . . to the external World is fitted"—

The Absent Present

THREE A Recluse—

The Esemplastic Power of the Imagination

FOUR "The philosophic mind"—

The Author’s Method(s) for the Imagination

FIVE The Recluse—

The Presence of the Absence

SIX Retrospect—

The Presence of the Absence (Concluded): Wordsworth’s Discourses on God

Editorial Reviews

"This book is written with a passion that is unusual in academic criticism. It has a clear and coherent argument, but it is nuanced and discriminating as well as bold. It is rigorous, in its close attention to the minute particulars of Wordsworth's craftsmanship, but it is also lively, witty, and consistently a pleasure to read." Heather Glen, University of Cambridge, UK.

From the Publisher