Author Type

Graduate Student

Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Publication Status

Version of Record

Submission Date

October 2026

Abstract

Following the work of Sara Houghton-Walker and Edward Strickland, this thesis theorizes the "mundane sublime" as encountered in romanticist John Clare's poetry. Instead of being oriented upward, as with Longinus's elevatory sublime, Clare's mundane sublime brings the subject downward to earth. While the sublime of the Burkean tradition begins with terror, I claim that the mundane sublime emerges out of love for that which is commonplace. Still revelatory, it may be further characterized by an engagement with ecosystems, eternity, divinity, and nature as a whole. Clare's style scaffolds images resulting in a profusion of detail that arrests the mind and allows it to reflect on its own position in nature. As Clare's mundane sublime takes up simple natural objects and posits an ecological interconnectedness, it implies a more environmentally responsible relationship to one's surroundings, making it increasingly relevant for green studies.

Extent

v, 64 p.

Comments

by Dana Odwazny Pell.|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012.|Includes bibliography.|Mode of access: World Wide Web.|System requirements: Adobe Reader.|by Dana Odwazny Pell.

Identifier

FADT3355875

Format

pdf

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