Synopses & Reviews
Review
"This is a big book in all senses except perhaps the literal one; it reaches backward to Romanticism, forward to contemporary critical and pedagogical practices, and laterally to different moments, different physical locations, and different poems. It should, then, be a book that makes a difference--in how we read ourselves reading Wordsworth, literature, and the practicers of our profession." Studies in English Literature"...my strongest response is in admiration for the comprehensive vision and intellectual rigor of Wordsworth, Dialogics, and the Practice of Criticism and gratitude to the author for mapping a sometimes rough terrain and distinguishing multiple voices...so clearly." Modern Philology"The book offers wise civic advice on liberal education, humanistic scholarship, and how we might read and profess the English romantic writers...It gives new vigor and bite to the convention of the survey of scholarship, in its hard-hitting account of several generations of interpreters of Wordsworth, from I. A. Richards to Marjorie Levinson. Above all, in its positive work this is the best development we have in any language of Bakhtinian dialogics as applied to poetry...Bialostosky's acheived dialogism increases his reader's spirit of contention and willingness to enter the debate...This extraordinary book marks a new stage of sophistication for Wordsworthians, romanticists generally -and for Bakhtinians, who are not usually in the same place as the first two groups." Donald Wesling, Studies in Romanticism
Review
"This is a big book in all senses except perhaps the literal one; it reaches backward to Romanticism, forward to contemporary critical and pedagogical practices, and laterally to different moments, different physical locations, and different poems. It should, then, be a book that makes a difference--in how we read ourselves reading Wordsworth, literature, and the practicers of our profession." Studies in English Literature"...my strongest response is in admiration for the comprehensive vision and intellectual rigor of Wordsworth, Dialogics, and the Practice of Criticism and gratitude to the author for mapping a sometimes rough terrain and distinguishing multiple voices...so clearly." Modern Philology"The book offers wise civic advice on liberal education, humanistic scholarship, and how we might read and profess the English romantic writers...It gives new vigor and bite to the convention of the survey of scholarship, in its hard-hitting account of several generations of interpreters of Wordsworth, from I. A. Richards to Marjorie Levinson. Above all, in its positive work this is the best development we have in any language of Bakhtinian dialogics as applied to poetry...Bialostosky's acheived dialogism increases his reader's spirit of contention and willingness to enter the debate...This extraordinary book marks a new stage of sophistication for Wordsworthians, romanticists generally -and for Bakhtinians, who are not usually in the same place as the first two groups." Donald Wesling, Studies in Romanticism
Synopsis
In recent decades, Wordsworth's poetry has become a point of focus for a great many of the proliferating schools of criticism and theoretical paradigms that dominate modern literary studies. Don Bialostosky here addresses the problem that the multiplicity of criticism has outrun the capacity to respond to it, often leaving teaching practices behind in their reflection of older models of literary study. Bialostosky's method 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 an understanding of Wordsworth's poetry as itself dialogically responding to its various contexts, and opens up fruitful possibilities for current 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.
Synopsis
This challenging book uses the case of Wordsworth studies to make a far-reaching survey of modern literary theory and its implications.