William Wordsworth : his relevance in a world dying from commodity

Abstract

This dissertation aims to showcase literature’s cultural relevance in the fight for climate justice, by referring to William Wordsworth’s poetry. It looks at the works of ecocritical writers, predominantly Amitav Ghosh’s book Uncanny and Improbable Events and applies Wordsworth’s poetic devices to suggest answers to modern- and contemporary-day questions relating to literature’s pertinence in climate change. The first chapter focuses on Amitav Ghosh’s Uncanny and Improbable Events with the interjection of Naomi Klein’s critique and that of other ecocritical authors. It summarizes key issues which literature needs to address regarding how it treats the subject of climate change. The second chapter looks more closely into Wordsworth’s work, observing his Lyrical Ballads, The Prelude, The Excursion and other poems to try to find answers for the matters raised in the first chapter. The political power of the poetic Imagination is observed, and links are found between Ghosh’s arguments and Wordsworth’s. Finally, the conclusion looks at some modern- and contemporary- day occurrences and uses those arguments which Ghosh and Wordsworth agree upon to suggest approaches to resolve them. The subjects of man’s uncanny link with nature are explored. This work shows that the messages in Wordsworth’s poetry have a universal application.