Homeless at Home:  John Clare and the Romantic Nightwalkers

Dr Matthew Beaumont (University College London)

14 December 2015, 6pm

The University of Northampton, School of the Arts

MR57 Maidwell Building, Avenue Campus

This open-to-all talk sets the Northamptonshire poet John Clare in the literary and historical context of the Romantic practice of walking at night in a rural setting, as practised, amongst others, by William Wordsworth. In Clare’s case, this activity entailed an all-the-more-urgent and desperate encounter with the Romantic self, both because of his formative experiences as an agricultural labourer and his experiences, far later in life, as an escapee from Matthew Allen’s asylum. If, for Wordsworth, night-walking was a form of spiritual vagrancy, for Clare, tragically, it was the real thing…

Matthew Beaumont is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at University College, London. He is the author of three books, the most recent of which is Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London (2015), and the editor of five essay collections, most recently G.K. Chesterton, London and Modernity (2013).

Festive refreshments will be available in the Avenue Campus Reception Area from 5pm. The Lecture will begin at 6 pm.   Open to all.    R.S.V.P. to guarantee your seat to: ecw@northampton.ac.uk

Image:  Signature of John Clare (Creative Commons)