Wordsworth, Dialogics and the Practice of Criticism

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.