Class and the Canon

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

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2. Introduction

   • Kirstie Blair

   Pages 1-15

3. Was Burns a Labouring-Class Poet?

   • Nigel Leask

   Pages 16-33

4. Constructing the Ulster Labouring-Class Poet: The Case of Samuel Thomson

   • Jennifer Orr

   Pages 34-54

5. Sociable or Solitary? John Clare, Robert Bloomfield, Community and Isolation

   • John Goodridge

   Pages 55-76

6. John Clare and the Triumph of Little Things

   • Mina Gorji

   Pages 77-94

7. ‘No more than as an atom ’mid the vast profound’: Conceptions of Time in the Poetry of William Cowper, William Wordsworth, and Ann Yearsley

   • Kerri Andrews

   Pages 95-115

8. The Pen and the Hammer: Thomas Carlyle, Ebenezer Elliott, and the ‘active poet’

   • Marcus Waithe

   Pages 116-135

9. Samuel Ferguson’s Maudlin Jumble

   • Matthew Campbell

   Pages 136-155

10. Courtly Lays or Democratic Songs? The Politics of Poetic Citation in Chartist Literary Criticism

    • Michael Sanders

    Pages 156-173

11. Edwin Waugh: The Social and Literary Standing of a Working-Class Icon

    • Brian Hollingworth

    Pages 174-190

12. William Barnes’s Place and Dialects of Connection

    • Sue Edney

    Pages 191-210

13. Back Matter

    Pages 211-216

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Examining how labouring-class poets constructed themselves and were constructed by critics as part of a canon, and how they situated their work in relation to contemporaries and poets from earlier periods, this book highlights the complexities of labouring-class poetic identities in the period from Burns to mid-late century Victorian dialect poets.

• poet
• poetics
• poetry
• William Wordsworth
• Wordsworth
• British and Irish Literature

"This paradigm shifting collection of essays is to be recommended to anyone interested in the interface between literature and history. The editors are to be congratulated on bringing together such an impressive cast of contributors. There are ground-breaking readings of familiar figures such as Ann Yearsley and John Clare and fascinating analyses of less familar ones such as Samuel Thomson. But what really sets this volume apart is the profound attention given to the complex relations between class and canon. The editors have put these topics back where they belong, right at the heart of critical debate." Gary Day, Principal Lecturer in English, De Montfort University, UK

"By complicating the notion of class, Blair and Gorji's outstanding collection advances the study of labouring-class poets in exciting new directions. Contributors expand our appreciation of the importance of poets such as Burns, Clare, and Barnes and introduce us to figures, such as Samuel Thomson and Samuel Ferguson, whose work deserves deeper consideration. The essays offer innovative contexts for re-envisioning the work of a wide range of writers and challenge the marginalization of laboring-class poetry in literary history." Professor Bridget Keegan, Department of English, Creighton University, USA

"...Class and the Canon offers much analysis beyond the biographical approaches which have so far tended to dominate this critical field." Adam White, The BARS Review

• University of Glasgow, UK

  Kirstie Blair

• University of Cambridge, UK

  Mina Gorji

KERRI ANDREWS Lecturer, University of Strathclyde, UK MATTHEW CAMPBELL Professor of English, University of York, UK SUE EDNEY Lecturer in English, Bath Spa University, UK JOHN GOODRIDGE Professor of English, Nottingham Trent University, UK BRIAN HOLLINGWORTH former Head of Literature Studies, Derby University, UK NIGEL LEASK Regius Chair of English Language and Literature, University of Glasgow, UK JENNIFER ORR University of Oxford, UK MICHAEL SANDERS Senior Lecturer in 19th Century Writing, University of Manchester, UK MARCUS WAITHE University Lecturer and Fellow of Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, UK

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