The Lake District: the foundation of environmentalism

Abstract

This dissertation will analyse Wordsworth’s A guide to the Lakes with an ecocritical approach; it will compare Wordsworth’s work with other writings about the Lake District. It will study, then, the environmental defence of the region, the preservation of it from modernity and the struggle to prevent this shrine of nature from being turned into a museum. It will also examine how the tourism in the area changed due to Wordsworth’s growing fame which attracted not only visitors but also new settlers, and how eventually his disciples, followers and admires contributed to the foundation of the Lake District National Park.