Educational History And Linguistic Historiography As Well As Romantic Literature And Intellectual Hi

By Author: jocelyn
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Like Tooke, Wordsworth gave great weight to prepositions: Manly might here have drawn on Ricks's Force of Poetry (1984). However, in this monograph, imaginative language and literature have a problematic status. Wordsworth, the subject of the penultimate chapter, becomes an ambiguous figure: Manly portrays him as ultimately isolated from and paternalistic towards the poor he represents, deradicalising their language by aesthe-ticising it, while elevating the poet and his perceptions. In contrast, although the Lyrical Ballads were published only four years before the Essay on Irish Bulls (1802), Manly's monograph asserts the perceived importance of that latter work in confirming the politi-cisation of folk language: Edgeworth defends the rationality of Irish speech and thereby portrays English stereotypes as inaccurate and English government as illegitimate. The end-position of Thomas Sabo Jewellery the chapter on the Edgeworths asserts what for Manly is their status as the 'primary Romantic exponent of Locke' as well as the implicit importance of education in transforming society.

Based ...
... on a contrast of lyric and didactic texts, Manly's compelling argument could be persuasively confirmed and enriched by explicitly considering Wordsworth's didactic and Edgeworth's imaginative writings. Wordsworth's support of monitorial education for the poor is discussed by Alan Richardson, in a text cited elsewhere by Manly. In Edgeworth's fictional writings, (how) do her representations of the poor relate to her cultivation of elite children in Practical Education (1798) Cited by Manly, one contemporary reviewer of Edgeworth's Popular Tales (1804) problematically praises their recommendation of 'industry, perseverance, prudence, good humour' to a '"vulgar" readership'. More helpfully for Manly's argument, a 2003 article by Rebecca Shapiro considers both the Essay on Irish Bulls and Edgeworth's representation of an Thomas Sabo Bracelets Irish servant narrator in her novel Castle Rackrent (1800) in the context of her status as a member of the Ascendancy. To balance her thoughtful consideration of Wordsworth's detachment, manly might also extend the knowledgeable analysis of Richard Lovell Edgeworth as a landowner as well as a politician. And her particular interest in Maria Edgeworth might be theorised more explicitly.

A superb work of primary scholarship, this monograph recontextualises important texts from a range of genres: Locke and the 'common' is a freshly fruitful context for Wordsworth. Its index might frustrate an inquisitive reader: though literary works and proper names are well represented and there are a few general entries for topics like 'class' and the 'English nation/people', the 'Lords' are all listed under 'L' and there are relatively few abstract terms like 'imagination' or 'eloquence' or 'community'. Yet read from beginning to end, Language, Custom and Nation will interest readers in such fields as educational history and linguistic historiography as well as Romantic literature and intellectual history.