Abstract
The chief observation-and critique- that virtually everyone makes regarding Dorothy Wordsworth's journals is that they display an alarming absence of subjectivity. Critics use almost identical terms to describe this quality in the journals: Bruce Bawer notes that "perhaps what is most arresting about them is their utter unself-consciousness" (30); Ernest de Selin court describes her journals as "entirely without self-consciousness" (78). Margaret Homans notes "Dorothy's tendency to omit a central or prominent self" (Women 73). Richard Fadem comments, "If Dorothy is notable, as every biographer agrees, for her utter selflessness, she is also remarkable for the absence of a clearly discernible self" (17). Robert Gittings and Jo Manton, Dorothy's most recent biographers, add, ''The paradox of her unique style is that it is no style. … The acute observation by Dorothy is there, but no Dorothy herself" (77).
Recommended Citation
Tyler, Lisa
(1995)
"Big Brother Is Watching You: Dorothy Wordsworth's Alfoxden and Grasmere Journals,"
University of Dayton Review: Vol. 23:
No.
2, Article 9.
Available at:
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/udr/vol23/iss2/9
