John Clare and the Question of Place

Abstract

‘Place’, and in particular the local, has become a key term in Romantic ecocriticism’s rage against the machine. Rhetorical affect is directly proportional to marginalization, maintaining an ironic barrier to genuine interrelationships between beings.¹ I call it ‘beautiful soul syndrome’ after Hegel’s characterization of Romantic subjectivity that perceives a chasm between consciousness and the world, which cannot be fully bridged without compromising the soul’s beauty.² Instead of wondering how to bridge an unbridgeable gap, ecological thinking might pose another question. To pose a question is to reveal how place and terms such as question are interconnected.