Homeless Near a Thousand Homes: Wordsworth and the Language of Vagrancy

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Research Question(s):How can Wordsworth's presentations of vagrancy inform our understanding of the criminalisation of homelessness today?- How did attitudes towards homelessness and vagrancy legislation change during the Georgian period?- How were these changes interpreted in Wordsworth's major literary works?- How can Wordsworth's presentations of vagrancy help us reflect on the language used to describe and legislate homelessness today?Context:The relationship between criminality and homelessness explored in William Wordsworth's Salisbury Plain poems provided the basis for my MA dissertation. My doctoral research will offer Wordsworth's writing on homelessness as a way of understanding the parallel between changes in moral and legislative attitudes towards vagrancy in the Georgian period, and the criminalisation of homelessness during the last decade, by focusing on the use of language. The Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill 2022, for example, uses archaic descriptions such as 'rogues and vagabonds' which appeared in the Vagrancy Act of 1824, but have a decidedly different meaning in a contemporary context. The importance of recognising the circular nature of debates around criminality and homelessness provides the impetus for this study. Criticism of Wordsworth's poems during the late twentieth century included Jerome McGann's'displacement' theory, which argued that they seek to 'occlude and disguise their own involvement in a certain nexus of historical relations.' (McGann, 1983). While this was useful in challenging the 'imagination-privileging' stance of Harold Bloom and Geoffrey Hartman (Bate, 1991), its focus on Wordsworth's shifting political perspective often results in a blind spot when assessing the poet's real potential to engage with moral and social issues. There remains a very limited base of scholarship which focuses on Wordsworth's engagement with the itinerant poor, and to my knowledge, none which aims to link this to modern perceptions of homelessness.Methodology:Historical and contemporary research- on the moral and social context and legislative changes around vagrancy in the late eighteenth century. This will include mapping the difference between what it meant to be homeless then and what it means today. Critical discourse analysis- of existing literary criticism on Romanticism, with a focus on those which explore the work in relation to homelessness and transience.Textual analysis- of Wordsworth's writing on the itinerant poor, with a focus on the language used in order to ensure an appropriate selection of texts for analysis.Impact:The research contributes to existing scholarship by enhancing understanding of Wordsworth's writing on homelessness from a historical and cultural perspective. Beyond the academic sphere, it seeks to stimulate public debate and challenge perceptions of homelessness by highlighting how language can be used, particularly through legislation, to reinforce negative stereotypes of those experiencing homelessness. Approaching these issues through the lens of poetry is useful because it helps us focus on individual experience rather than the sweeping generalisation of legislation. In addition to a traditional thesis, my research output will also be disseminated through an audio drama/podcast which explores the key themes to enable me to reach a wider audience.