'From Dreamlight to Daylight'

Pater's Medievalism

Abstract

This article examines William Morris's medievalism according to Walter Pater's "Poems of W. Morris" (1868). Conversely to many Victorian writers, Pater does not see the Middle Ages as a mere historical period but as a personal experience whose aim is to make the subject come to terms with the Real. As an ontological moment, the Middle Ages should be linked to Pater's vision of Hellenism and of the Renaissance as it deploys itself in "Winckelmann." Pater's revision of history leads to a reappraisal of the notion of subjectivity.