William Wordsworth and the Hermeneutics of Incarnation

William Wordsworth and the Hermeneutics of Incarnation, Volume 1, offers a rigorous analysis of the poet's use of incarnational rhetoric. David Haney challenges recent critical views by arguing that Wordsworth uses the Christian concept of incarnation to address mortality and historical contingency. This work of literary criticism explores the tension between Enlightenment epistemology and the need for an ethical dimension in thought, examining both The Prelude and The Excursion.

Integrating semiotics and theory, the text draws on philosophers like Hans Gadamer and Emmanuel Levinas to bridge poetry, theology, and philosophy. By moving beyond deconstructive and new-historicist models, William Wordsworth and the Hermeneutics of Incarnation provides a new framework for understanding how meaning is produced amidst historical chaos. This study serves as a significant contribution to European and English literary scholarship.