The Chartist Imaginary: Aesthetics, Politics and History in Chartist Poetry 1838-1852

本研究项目考察了主要宪章报纸《北极星报》的诗歌专栏。它讨论了一百多位工人阶级诗人的作品，他们在报纸的生命周期中为诗歌专栏做出了贡献。它问“宪章派诗人写了什么样的诗，为什么？ ”它试图理解诗歌在宪章运动中的重要意义，通过观察宪章诗歌对宪章战略和战术的讨论的贡献，诗歌在解释当前政治事件和庆祝宪章领袖和宪章活动中的作用。它也审视了宪章派关于爱情、家庭、孩子和自然的诗歌，并问这些诗歌是否也是“政治诗歌”？它问是否存在一种“宪章美学”，一种独特的宪章诗歌形式，如果存在，它与我们更熟悉的浪漫主义和维多利亚时代的诗歌形式是相似还是不同。

This research project examines the poetry column of the leading Chartist newspaper, the 'Northern Star'. It discusses the work of over a hundred working-class poets who contributed to the poetry column during the newspaper's lifetime. It asks 'what kind of poetry did Chartist poets write and why?' It seeks to understand the significant of poetry within the Chartist movement by looking at the ways in which Chartist poetry contributed to discussions of Chartist strategy and tactics, poetry's role in interpreting current political events and celebrating Chartist leaders and Chartist activity. It also looks at Chartist poems about love, the family, children, and nature, and asks if these too are 'political poems'? It asks if there is such a thing as a 'Chartist aesthetic', a distinctively Chartist form of poetry and, if so, whether it is similar to or different from more familiar forms of Romantic and Victorian poetry.