Wordsworth’s Radical Aesthetics

Abstract

This article focuses on the aesthetics of William Wordsworth, particularly his early poetry. The implications of this investigation are far-reaching. To learn about Wordsworth’s aesthetics is to learn about Romanticism, specifically radical Romanticism and the intricate relation it forges between aesthetics and democracy.  I begin the article with a general account of radical aesthetics, addressing its nature, scope, and its relation to the normative, the political, and the everyday. Next, I turn to the radical aesthetics of Wordsworth.  I then compare radical aesthetics to more traditional accounts of aesthetics, concluding by connecting radical Romantic aesthetics to practical power.