Session 4, 2022-23
15th March 2023, 17.30 UK time. DATE CHANGED DUE TO STRIKE ACTION (Please disregard date on poster).
Prof Jeffrey N Cox, University of Colorado Boulder will be talking to us:
Wordsworth’s The Borderers: Early and Late
Abstract:
While we have, with good reason, been interested in The Borderers for what it tells us about Wordsworth’s intellectual and aesthetic development as a poet at its point of composition, I will be interested in thinking about it, first, in relation to the drama and theater of the 1790s and second, as a cultural act in 1842, as Wordsworth seeks to define his place one more time on the literary scene. Wordsworth’s sole tragedy, while written in the late 1790s, did not appear until 1842, in his last volume of new poetry, Poems, Chiefly of Early and Late Years; including the Borderers, A Tragedy. Supporting my view is the back matter of the collection. There are two series of advertisements: one for the other six volumes in the newest edition of Wordsworth’s poetry and the other for his publisher’s Edward Moxon’s “Dramatic Library” which includes plays by key playwrights from Shakespeare to Congreve, with the editors spanning the romantic movement from Thomas Campbell to Leigh Hunt to Hartley Coleridge. One set of these print paratexts places Wordsworth’s play within his life’s work, but another group relates the play to the dramatic tradition from Early Modern to the romantic periods.
About Prof JN Cox:
Professor Jeffrey N Cox, Distinguished Professor of the Arts and Sciences at the University of Colorado Boulder. His latest book William Wordsworth: Second Generation Romantic (CUP, 2021) was awarded the Marylin Gaull award from Wordsworth-Coleridge Association.
For a detailed overview of Prof JN Cox’s research and expertise, please visit: https://www.colorado.edu/english/jeffrey-cox
Register here (link to eventbrite.co.uk)
ALL ARE WELCOME!
Registration is free and links to the Zoom meeting will be sent to the registered email address shortly before the event. Thank you and look forward to meeting everyone on February 1st.
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Sincerely,
Inventions of the Text,
Department of English Studies,
Durham University