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And Sublime Human Forms of Wordsworth's the Prelude in The Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2002 "Uncouth Shapes" and sublime human forms of Wordsworth's The rP elude in the ligh of Berdyaev's personalistic philosophy of freedom Elena V. Haltrin Khalturina Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Haltrin Khalturina, Elena V., ""Uncouth Shapes" and sublime human forms of Wordsworth's The rP elude in the ligh of Berdyaev's personalistic philosophy of freedom" (2002). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 2138. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/2138 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. “UNCOUTH SHAPES” AND SUBLIME HUMAN FORMS OF WORDSWORTH’S THE PRELUDE IN THE LIGHT OF BERDYAEV’S PERSONALISTIC PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Elena V. Haltrin Khalturina B.S., Moscow Pedagogical College, Russia, 1991 M.A., Louisiana State University, 1996 May 2002 ©Copyright 2002 Elena V. Haltrin Khalturina All rights reserved ii EPIGRAPH Here might I pause, and bend in reverence To Nature, and the power of human minds, To men as they are men within themselves. How oft high service is performed within, When all the external man is rude in show,— Not like a temple rich with pomp and gold, But a mere mountain chapel, that protects Its simple worshippers from sun and shower. Of these, said I, shall be my song; of these, If future years mature me for the task, Will I record the praises, making verse Deal boldly with substantial things; in truth And sanctity of passion, speak of these, That justice may be done, obeisance paid Where it is due: thus haply shall I teach, Inspire, through unadulterated ears Pour rapture, tenderness, and hope,—my theme No other than the very heart of man, As found among the best of those who live, Not unexalted by religious faith, Nor uninformed by books, good books, though few, In Nature’s presence: thence may I select Sorrow, that is not sorrow, but delight; And miserable love, that is not pain To hear of, for the glory that redounds Therefrom to human kind, and what we are. (The Prelude, 1850, Book Thirteen, 224-49) It begins to be clear, to me at least, why Wordsworth wears so well. There are in our world currents of thought that are central, and others that are merely contributaries, or wander off into the bogs and deserts of philosophy. That stream which first became defined in Kant’s philosophy, and continued to flow however irregularly through the minds of Schelling, Coleridge, Kierkegaard, Hegel, Nietzsche, Husserl, Heidegger, divided by a watershed from the contrary stream to which we can attach the names of Locke, Condillac, Hartley, Bentham, Marx and Lenin — that first stream to which we give the fashionable name of Existentialism, but which is really the main tradition of philosophy itself — in that stream Wordsworth is confidently carried. Other poets of his time and since his time may give us keener thrills of pure aesthetic pleasure. Wordsworth can move us in that way, too, but his singular distinction is the centrality and traditional validity of his philosophical faith. We go to Wordsworth’s poetry for something more lasting than pleasure, and for something more human than beauty. (Herbert Read, The True Voice of Feeling: Studies in English Romantic Poetry, p. 210-11) iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT . v INTRODUCTION: “TO BE YOUNG WAS VERY HEAVEN;” TWO THINKERS BRED BY TWO REVOLUTIONS: WORDSWORTH AND BERDYAEV . 1 CHAPTER 2: THE HUMAN FORM AND HUMAN INDEPENDENCE IN WORDSWORTH: A LINK . 22 CHAPTER 3: “MAN ENNOBLED OUTWARDLY BEFORE MY SIGHT” . 59 CHAPTER 4: “UNCOUTH SHAPES” AND THEIR PROGRESS FROM TRANSGRESSION TO TRANSCENDENCE . 126 CHAPTER 5: WORDSWORTH’S TRANS-FIGURATION ON MOUNT SNOWDON AND “GENUINE LIBERTY”: CONCLUSION . 187 REFERENCES . 203 VITA . 225 iv ABSTRACT In complementary response to socio-historisists who discuss the concept of “freedom” in William Wordsworth’s poetry as determined from without — be it by socio-historical conditions, gender, or imposed ideology — I draw from the theory of Nicholas Berdyaev, one of the prominent continental existentialists of the twentieth century, tracing the development of Wordsworth’s understanding of freedom towards “genuine liberty” as progressively determined from within. Thus focusing on existentia rather than essentia, I pay particular attention to shaping inner efforts and developing visions of the growing and conscious personality as they are described in The Prelude. Wordsworth hinges his ability to perceive — and make perceivable — the “external man” upon his own evolving understanding of inner freedom, claiming that his theme is “no other than the very heart of man.” In The Prelude, especially of 1850, I find a direct link between the degree of personal freedom gained by the poet and the perfection of the human gestalten he depicts, the connection detailed by this dissertation. The dissertation offers the following chapters: (1) “Introduction. ‘To be young was very heaven:’ Two Thinkers Bred by Two Revolutions: Wordsworth and Berdyaev;” (2) “The Human Form and Human Independence in Wordsworth: A Link;” (3) “‘Man Ennobled Outwardly Before My Sight’;” (4) “‘Uncouth Shapes’ and Their Progress from Transgression to Transcendence;” (5) “Wordsworth’s Trans-Figuration on Mount Snowdon and ‘Genuine Liberty.’ Conclusions.” v My conclusion suggests that increasing degree of growing personal independence, gained by the developing poet and, possibly, by his reader, is manifested, on the level of imagery, by way of the perfecting of the human gestalten, from one Spot of Time to another, until the poet himself gets into a position to be seen as “an index of delight.” Also, agreeing with Herbert Read (p. 210 of The True Voice of Feeling), I see Wordsworth among the first existentialist poets, a position which my comparison with Berdyaev supports. Visually, in The Prelude, the perfect, sublime, human form signals a shift to and back from transcendence, which equals “genuine liberty.” vi INTRODUCTION: “TO BE YOUNG WAS VERY HEAVEN;” TWO THINKERS BRED BY TWO REVOLUTIONS: WORDSWORTH AND BERDYAEV William Wordsworth (1770-1850), surely never read any “true-blue” existentialist philosophers, because existentialism as a movement was formed only in the beginning of the twentieth century. An existentialist Nicholas Berdyaev (1874-1948), with his profound knowledge of German, French, and Russian letters, read those English writers who were well-known on the Continent at the turn of the nineteenth century. Wordsworth hardly was one of them. Nevertheless, each thinker, Wordsworth and Berdyaev, had his close experience with one of the most bloody revolutions of modern history: the French Revolution of 1791 and the Russian Revolution of 1917, respectively. The tragic aftermath of both revolutions somewhat cooled the revolutionary zeal of both champions of justice. Even though neither Wordsworth, nor Berdyaev, ever came to accept political and social oppression, in the eyes of the radicals they became known as conservatives, egotists, and almost traitors to revolutionary ideals. In their post-revolutionary personal writings, be it poetry or philosophical essays, the similarities also abound, even though Berdyaev’s name is not commonly evoked in connection with the bard of Rydal Mount. There are, of course, similarities and ideological affinity between the French and Russian Revolutions. However, in this work, I have no intention to go into structural, point by point, comparison of the two events or of the biographies of the two thinkers: such a comparison would be fitting for a detailed and profound historical and biographical study, which is beyond the 1 scope of this work. From an existential standpoint, which sets the tone of the pages below, it is the times of crisis, which are brought about by all kinds of revolutions, that matter. When, during revolutions, the external structures crumble away, the seemingly stable balance of powers collapses, the just revolutionary theories are found impracticable and spinning out of control, men and women – and especially young men and women – start searching for stability elsewhere: in their own experience, minds and souls. To employ existentialist parlance, at a time of crisis, human beings, with sudden clarity, become aware of their concrete existence and begin to regard it as preceding essence. After that preference is established, the existential themes of anxiety, absurdity, nothingness, death, and alienation are usually opened up by existents.1 All of these themes are bound up with the perceptions and feelings of the human subject, who strives to overcome alienation from the outer world. This dissertation looks at several existential themes in the works of two thinkers, a poet and a philosopher, who had their own very personal experience with the revolutionary time of crisis. Wordsworth not only visited France during that country’s most turbulent time, but also weathered the ensuing war between France and England, while Annette Vallon, his French love, bore him a daughter on the other side of the then uncrossable Channel. Berdyaev also had suffered through the revolution. And the question, what is freedom and how to stay free, despite all immutable constraints imposed from without, was of vital importance for both Wordsworth and Berdyaev.2 2 Nicholas A. Berdyaev3 was born in Kiev into an aristocratic family. Almost all of his ancestors were Russian military officers of high ranks, but he himself resigned from the army quite early and became active in the social life of Kiev aristocracy.
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