Possibilities of Society

Regina Hewitt is Associate Professor of English at the University of South Florida. She is the author of Wordsworth and the Empirical Dilemma.

"This is a remarkable piece of work, authentically original scholarly criticism, written with extreme clarity and consistent cogency. It makes me realize how biased are the usual ways of reading Romantic poetry, both the traditional 'aesthetic' way and the contemporary 'political' way." — Karl Kroeber, Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Department of English, Columbia University"This is a bold and brave undertaking, for it runs counter to a mode of criticism that is particularly well established in Romantic studies. Fully aware of the implications of her revisionist reading of the major Romantic poets, the author has been meticulous in setting forth her argument." — Frederick Burwick, Department of English, University of California, Los Angeles"The argument is so completely original, so unexpected in its vision of Romantic poetry, that one is continually forced to rethink previous understanding. Most new academic studies are exercises in fine-tuning; this book is breathtaking in its complete originality of approach. So effectively is the argument developed that what at first seems an outlandish thesis comes to seem perfectly obvious and self-evident by the end of the book." — Robert M. Ryan, English Department, Rutgers University

• Preface 1. How Is Sociology Possible? 2. The Institution of Sociology 3. Wordsworth, Coleridge, and the Sociological Point of View 4. Views of the Country 5. Wordsworth and the Institution of Poetry 6. Coleridge and the Configuration of Knowledge 7. Social Change and the Second Generation 8. The Possibilities of Poetic Scoiology Notes Works Cited Index