Tennyson and the Fabrication of Englishness

Through an examination of Tennyson's 'domestic poetry' - his portrayals of England and the English - in their changing nineteenth-century context, this book demonstrates that many of his representations were 'fabrications', more idealized than real, which played a vital part in the country's developing identity and sense of its place in the world.

Both Tennyson and the term ''Englishness'' - coined in 1804 - date from the same decade and critics identified Tennyson as an English poet from the first reviews of his published poems in the 1820s. As Poet Laureate, Tennyson became the authoritative public voice of English poetry and one of the ''thinking men of England''. By the late nineteenth century, an ideology of Englishness had been established which was reflected in and shaped by cultural forces and emerging myths in general and Tennyson''s poetry in particular. This wide-ranging study examines Tennyson''s ''domestic poetry'' - his portrayals of English nature and landscape, monarchy, medievalism, and the ''English Empire'', written throughout his career and in their changing nineteenth-century context - to confirm that many representations of England and the English were fabrications, more idealised than real.