The World in Ruins: Wordsworth, Du Bois, and Silko

Abstract For W. E. B. Du Bois and Leslie Silko, ruins are sites of haunting pain and injustice as well as of liberatory hope and renovation. Reflecting on the image of the ruin in their writings against the backdrop of Romanticism, this article depicts two Romantic conceptions of ruins: the picturesque ruin and the Wordsworthian prophetic ruin. Against these contrasting employments of the ruin, the article discusses how Du Bois and Silko subvert the picturesque ruin and radically extend and transform the prophetic ruin. The article then claims that some ruins are so catastrophic, it is not much of an exaggeration to speak of a ruined planet due to such forces as white supremacy, settler colonialism, and climate change. The present article concludes by reflecting on the work of renovation—that is, rebuilding in the shadows of the ruin having learned from its lessons, history, and ghosts.