Cosmopolitan Outlook as Space of Quest for Truth: William Michael Rossetti and his Democratic Sonnets
Cosmopolitan Outlook as Space of Quest for Truth: William Michael Rossetti and his Democratic Sonnets

Summary/Abstract: Everyday cosmopolitan experience does not lead spontaneously to cosmopolitan outlook, whose crucial core is recognition. The formation of cosmopolitan outlook is a conscious intellectual process, and as such, it can be fostered and shaped, which is justification for a study of its conditions. After discussing ‘cosmopolitan’ as a term in philosophy and political science, the paper examines cosmopolitan outlook in the private sphere, as a mental space where recognition of cultural, political and moral values takes place. Quoting facts from the life and work of William Michael Rossetti, the investigation is intended to highlight the major constituents of his cosmopolitanism, especially as it is expressed in his Democratic Sonnets. William Michael Rossetti was an art and literary critic, who sporadically also composed poetry. His sonnet sequence reads best as the author’s commentary on political and social issues while insisting on such values as democracy, freedom, patriotism, justice and commitment to truth. The Democratic Sonnets is interpreted as imaging its author’s cosmopolitan outlook, realized not only with shifts in relative space (the two-volume sequence is subdivided into countries), but also with transitions between the national and the universal.

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