Dorothy Wordsworth i zwierzęta
Dorothy Wordsworth and Animals

The Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals from the Perspective of Human-Animal Studies

Author(s): Magdalena Ożarska
Subject(s): Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, 19th Century, Philology, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Dorothy Wordsworth; Diaries; Human-Animal Studies
Summary/Abstract: The journals of Dorothy Wordsworth (1771–1855), the only sister of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth (1770–1850), written between 1798 and 1803 in the English Lake District localities of Alfoxden and Grasmere, are largely devoted to observation of nature. Much has been written on this subject since 20th-century feminist criticism focused the interest of literary scholars on the works of Dorothy Wordsworth. So far, numerous plants which she depicted have been critically examined, but the animals described by the diarist have not received a detailed discussion. In this chapter, I use the perspective of Human-Animal Studies (HAS) to look at Dorothy Wordsworth’s "Alfoxden" and "Grasmere Journals" to see what new insights may be revealed by so doing. The questions I investigate include the following: What animal species dominate in her journals? How does Dorothy portray animals when she decides to make them her journal characters? Does she adopt an anthropocentric attitude, ascribing human characteristics to animals, or not? Does the diarist read animate nature exclusively from her human perspective, or does she try to experiment with other points of view?

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