The Excursion and Wordsworth's Iconography
Summary
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The Excursion and Wordsworth's Iconography by Brandon C Yen
Fresh readings are also offered of Wordsworth's other major works, including The Prelude. Yen explores Wordsworth's iconography in The Excursion by tracing allusions and correspondences in an abundance of post-1789 and earlier verbal and pictorial sources, as well as in Wordsworth's prose and poetry.
'Yen’s rich and fascinating study of The Excursion builds on Fiona Stafford’s recent revaluing of the local to focus on “the quiet functioning of local detail” at a linguistic and metaphorical level through mediated images of rural landscapeYen works sensitively within the form of the long poem, with its extended passages of argument and reflection, to tease out “intratextual and intertextual recurrences” that resonate across the whole. Across five categories of “envisioning”; “rooting”, “dwelling”, “flowing”, and “reflecting” Yen pulls out the threads of allusion that link the language of the text into larger political events of the time, arguing for an iconographic power held in the figurative language of landscape. Methodologically sophisticated, the work both draws on and challenges the tenets of New Historicism so that, rather than displacing history, it seeks to awaken the history inherent within the allusive force of landscape imagery through a process of iconological interpretation. The writing is characterised by a remarkable attention to nuances of meaning, whilst the interpretation of political cartoons and symbols of the French Revolution grounds the argument in visual evidence. Brandon Yen’s study treats The Excursion with the respect it deserves as a major work of the late Revolutionary period.'
Sally Bushell, Professor of Romantic and Victorian Literature, Lancaster University.
‘It is a crucial book for students of The Excursion, but its positioning of that poem will also revitalize study of Wordsworth more generally… Yen’s impressively researched book should prompt critics to return to The Excursion with fresh eyes.’
David Stewart, European Romantic Review
‘An outstanding and persistent feature of the book is Yen’s seamless integration of the poetry into his prose. This creates a hybrid voice, at once presenting the poetry for reconsideration and providing an enlightening interpretation of it. Ultimately, through this hybrid voice, Yen emerges as an advocate for renewed and increased scholarly attention to The Excursion.’
Brandon Wernette, The BARS Review
'The most ambitious, learned, wide-ranging, and important book on The Excursion to date, one that firmly establishes the poem as the central text in Wordsworth’s re-imagining of British iconographic tradition and his reconfiguring of the post-revolutionary landscape.'
Alison Hickey, The Review of English Studies
Sally Bushell, Professor of Romantic and Victorian Literature, Lancaster University.
‘It is a crucial book for students of The Excursion, but its positioning of that poem will also revitalize study of Wordsworth more generally… Yen’s impressively researched book should prompt critics to return to The Excursion with fresh eyes.’
David Stewart, European Romantic Review
‘An outstanding and persistent feature of the book is Yen’s seamless integration of the poetry into his prose. This creates a hybrid voice, at once presenting the poetry for reconsideration and providing an enlightening interpretation of it. Ultimately, through this hybrid voice, Yen emerges as an advocate for renewed and increased scholarly attention to The Excursion.’
Brandon Wernette, The BARS Review
'The most ambitious, learned, wide-ranging, and important book on The Excursion to date, one that firmly establishes the poem as the central text in Wordsworth’s re-imagining of British iconographic tradition and his reconfiguring of the post-revolutionary landscape.'
Alison Hickey, The Review of English Studies
‘Yen matches the number and complexity of Wordsworth’s local details with his own. I found the iconographical lens most productive in chapter 4, where Yen explicates a political tension within the iconography of rural cottages.’ Lawrence Evalyn, Eighteenth-Century Fiction
Brandon C. Yen is an Irish Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow at University College Cork. He holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge and is co-author (with Peter Dale) of Wordsworth’s Gardens and Flowers: The Spirit of Paradise (2018).
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781800856639 |
| ISBN 10 | 1800856636 |
| Title | The Excursion and Wordsworth's Iconography |
| Author | Brandon C Yen |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Liverpool University Press |
| Year published | 2021-09-01 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |