A Study On The Loss Of "Sense Of Place" In The Prelude

The Prelude,as the writing of William Wordsworth's growth of mind,provides a perfect template to interpret his consciousness of ideal homeland.As the physical carrier of homeland,“place” is a keyword in The Prelude.And the poet gradually constructs his ideal homeland in dynamic transformation among “places”.However,scholars at home and abroad pay much attention to the themes of nature,religion and ecology as well as the image implications in place writing,and neglect the influences of “place” on the poet's construction of ideal homeland.Based on this research status,taking Yi-Fu Tuan's “topophillia” as theoretical foundation and adopting research methods of qualitative analysis and close reading,this thesis aims to explore the process of Wordsworth's loss of sense of place and the solutions to regaining the sense of place,to reveal the important values of “place” for the poet's construction of homeland consciousness.Specifically,this thesis firstly starts from the dynamic “place” experiences to comb Wordsworth's spiritual journey of pursuing for ideal homeland.Lake District as the poet's geographical hometown is the carrier of ideal homeland,but the invasion of the industrial civilization makes the poet realize the defects of the former idyll.In order to resolve the sense of loss,the poet decides to leave Lake District for studying at Cambridge.However,Cambridge as a city of enlightening intelligence makes the poet have deep scepticism to its real value because of the loss of academic values.Thus,the poet chooses the epitome of the industrial civilization-London to regain the sense of home.But the various social ills of London further make the poet feel desperate.At the same time,the French Revolution seems to rekindle the poet's hope for ideal homeland,yet the blood and killing in the latter period of revolution completely disillusion it.The poet is stuck in the everlasting spiritual exile,and place existence and place value nearly die out.Furthermore,this thesis takes “regression” as a main line to explore how the poet fulfils the redemption of soul through regaining the real meaning of “place” from the physical and spiritual aspects.The particular place experiences of Lake District make the poet regain the sense of home and form two kinds of consciousness of the self and the other.Moreover,the poet recovers his impaired imagination and taste in nature's enlightenment,and also creates the special “spots of time”.At the same time,the simplicity and liberty of nature make him recapture the love of man,dispelling the strong spiritual impacts of the Enlightenment especially Godwin's rationalism.In conclusion,this thesis,taking Tuan's “topophillia” as theoretical foundation,explores his consciousness on the loss of sense of place in the process of ideal homeland construction and consciousness on the regression of sense of place after the French Revolution.Accordingly,this thesis not only adds the lack of the studies on place writing in The Prelude from the perspective of literary regionalism,but also offers readers a new perspective to understand The Prelude and Wordsworth' other works.At the same time,it provides an effective case for analysing the place consciousness in relevant literary works.