William Wordsworth's Spatialized Self and Subjectivized space in The Prelude

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Research Article

Authors

1 Department of English, Faculty of Language and Literature, University of Kurdistan

2 Department of English and Writing Studies, University of Western Ontario

Abstract

Introduction:
Most scholarship on Wordsworth’s Book Seven of The Prelude has relied on the duality of city/nature resulting from the Industrial Revolution and rapid urbanization. However, Book Seven offers moments that challenge this duality by exhibiting ambivalent attitudes toward London as a space of contradictory possibilities. This study argues that the inadequacy of the dyad of the mental and physical spaces necessitates a shift of perspective towards a trialectics which must include simultaneous different levels. The research also argues that the ‘confusion’ and “full and empty” London depicted in the Book Seven tend to spatially subjectivize Wordsworth as well. In fact, Wordsworth’s encounter with mirrors the face/façade of London.

Theoretical Framework :
This research will use Henri Lefebvre’s conceptualization of space in his oeuvre to analyze Wordsworth’s confrontation with London in Book Seven of The Prelude. In his magnum opus, The Production of Space (1991), Lefebvre conceptualizes space through three interconnected triads of the spatial: practice/the physical/ the perceived space; representations of space/ the conceived/ mental space; and spaces of representation/ the social/ lived space. He also elaborates on abstract space and its features and consequences along with suggestions to overcome the alienation produced by abstract space. Moreover, his other books such as Rhythmanalysis, Critique of Everyday Life, Urban Revolution will be drawn upon too.

Conclusion

Far from conceiving Wordsworth as a passive receptor of London, the research contends that Wordsworth’s serious challenge is how to cope with the demanding task of uniting, a flower, a fruit, or a garden as “works”; asphalt, brick, stone, concrete, or iron as “products”; and memory, fantasy, and desire as forms of subjectivity. The research finds out that Wordsworth's spatial subjectivity is distributed across the cosmic, urban, and personal planes. He struggles to achieve a rapprochement among natural elements, urban mystification, and personal consciousness. Between the subject of praxis and of becoming, he is capable of producing his own life as a work of art. Wordsworth subjectivizes London and London spatializes Wordsworth's self, reflecting the interplay between the urbs and the psyche since acts of consciousness are always shaped by their urban contexts.

Keywords

References

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Critical Language and Literary studies

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Available Online from 04 March 2025

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