Tennyson and the Fabrication of Englishness [Hardcover]

Through an examination of Tennyson's 'domestic poetry' - his portrayals of England and the English - in their changing nineteenth-century context, this book demonstrates that many of his representations were 'fabrications', more idealized than real, which played a vital part in the country's developing identity and sense of its place in the world.A Note on the Text Preface Introduction: The Enigma of Englishness 1. 'A Poet in the Truest and Highest Sense': The Early Poems and their Reception 2. 'Mr. Tennyson's Singular Genius': The Reception of Poems (1832) 3. 'Mr. Tennyson's Truly English Spirit': Landscape and Nature in Poems (1842) 4. 'Fair Victoria's Golden Age': Tennyson and Monarchy 5. 'To Serve as Model for the Mighty World': Tennyson and Medievalism 6. 'Ever-broadening England': Tennyson and Empire Conclusion: Fabricating Englishness Works Cited Index

Tennyson and the Fabrication of Englishness is, on the whole, scrupulously careful to define and, by and large, to fulfill its own mission. & of potentially significant use for students and other readers seeking an overview of major topics that unites both major and minor poems. (Cornelia Pearsall, Victorian Studies, Vol. 57 (3), 2015)

...Sherwood's book contributes to a revival of interest in the relationship between poetry and nation that has taken place in the last couple of decades and that has generated a rich body of work... Sherwood raises some important questions about the Tennysonian vocabulary... her study is alive to the fragility of Englishness, to the possibility that it is a 'fantasy or falsehood' and to the sense that its individual threads are as likely to pull against one another as they are to be of a piece. Anna Barton, Tennyson Reseach Bulletin