Enclosure of the English Commons Criticism
The enclosure of the English commons, a process primarily occurring between 1750 and 1830, involved the transformation of communal agricultural land into individually owned parcels, often benefiting large landowners and altering the socio-economic landscape. While this shift is frequently associated with increased agricultural production and economic growth, it also sparked significant social criticism for exacerbating inequality and impacting rural communities. The Anatomy of Enclosure by Mingay provides a comprehensive overview of these economic impacts, emphasizing regional differences.
Literary figures like John Clare and William Barnes offer poignant critiques of enclosure from a personal and cultural perspective. Clare, often called a "peasant-poet," captures the personal and communal losses experienced by rural laborers, focusing on the loss of happiness and freedom rather than economic factors. His poems, known as "enclosure elegies," are incisive social protests against the changing landscape, as analyzed by Johanne Clare and John Goodridge. Meanwhile, Barnes's work reflects a yearning for a pre-industrial past, advocating for self-sufficiency and criticizing the emergence of a passive wealthy class, as discussed by Andrew Phillips.
While enclosure is often viewed in terms of economic and industrial development, literary critiques underscore its profound cultural and emotional impacts. These themes resonate not only in Clare and Barnes’s writings but also appear in earlier works like Shakespeare’s As You Like It, indicating the long-standing nature of this social transformation, as noted by Richard Wilson. These critiques highlight the enduring tension between progress and preservation in England’s agrarian history.
Contents
- Representative Works
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The Anatomy of Enclosure
(summary)
In the following essay, Mingay provides an overview of parliamentary enclosure with special emphasis on its effects on England as a whole and in its individual counties.
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Early Reaction To Enclosure
(summary)
In the following essay, Wilson discusses enclosure in the 1590s and its reflection in Shakespeare's As You Like It, suggesting that neither enclosure itself nor literature dealing with it were confined to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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Criticism: Nineteenth-Century Reaction To Enclosure
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John Clare and the Enclosure of Helpston
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Barrell looks at how critics of Clare have evaluated the role of enclosure in his poetry and then offers his own conclusions.
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‘Vile Invasions’: The Enclosure Elegies
(summary)
In the following essay, critic Johanne Clare examines several of John Clare's “enclosure elegies,” those poems of social protest and lamentation regarding the effects of enclosure on the landscape and its people.
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Pastoral and Popular Modes in Clare's Enclosure Elegies
(summary)
In the following essay, Goodridge examines John Clare's use of a variety of popular and literary traditions in what have become known as his “enclosure elegies.”
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An Exercise in Nostalgia?: John Clare and Enclosure
(summary)
In the following essay, Rowbotham discusses whether John Clare was correct in blaming enclosure for what he saw as the destructive changes in rural society.
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Society
(summary)
In the following essay, Phillips discusses William Barnes's vision for England and his critiques of mid-nineteenth-century English society in his poetry and prose.
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John Clare and the Enclosure of Helpston
(summary)
- Further Reading