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Twentieth Century Poetry
Selves and Situations

Peter Robinson

Price: £68.00 (hardback)
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-927325-6
Publication date: 6 January 2005
296 pages, 216x138 mm
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Reviews
  • 'immensely stimulating...The sure style, the engaging use of detail, and the humility of the critic made it all interesting, informative, and intruiging throughout.' - Philip Tew, Modern Languages Review, vol 102, part 1
  • 'Robinson has been a generous promoter of contemporary poetry for decades, and this collection of essays bears witness to his dedication and energy. He writes with an unformulaic enthusiasm, moving easily from biographical, political and poetic context to the nitty-gritty of close reading, while also striking an easy, readable tone.' - Angela Leighton, TLS
  • 'Twentieth Century Poetry is a book which dares to tackle the difficult topic of the relationship of poetry and politics; it does so, mostly, with a light touch which lets the poetry speak for itself...Peter Robinson is to be credited with listening attentively and knowledgeably to poetry, and his engagement with lesser-known, even unjustly neglected writers is especially welcome.' - Angela Leighton, TLS

Description
  • Written by an award-winning poet, this book presents sensitive readings of major twentieth-century poets, including Ezra Pound, Basil Bunting, Louis MacNeice, and Tom Raworth
  • Explores the nature of poetic inspiration and the relation of poets to places that are not their own
Peter Robinson's third book of literary criticism presents a sequence of chapters exploring ways that selves and situations interact and become imaginatively identified with each other in poems. Readings of works by Ezra Pound, Basil Bunting, Louis MacNeice, W. S. Graham, Elizabeth Bishop, Allen Curnow, Charles Tomlinson, Mairi MacInnes, Tom Raworth, and Roy Fisher share an interest in how poems can be both attached to, and detached from, the culture, society, and conditions in which they were written. These studies draw out and underline both the ubiquity and elusiveness of the self in the situation of the text. The poems studied here are also discussed as focal points for relations between readerly and writerly selves and their situations in and over time.

Readership: Scholars and students with an interest in poetry, criticism, and literary history.

Contents
1. Selves and Situations
2. Pound's Psychological Hour
3. Bunting's Emigrant Ballads
4. MacNeice and Self-Sufficiency
5. Dependence in W. S. Graham
6. Elizabeth Bishop's Art
7. Bishop's Crusoe
8. Allen Curnow Travels
9. Tomlinson in the Golfo dei Poeti
10. 'Absolute Circumstance': Mairi MacInnes
11. Tom Raworth and Pop Art
12. Roy Fisher's Last Things

Authors, editors, and contributors


Peter Robinson, Visiting Professor of English Literature, Tohoku University, Sendai


Links to web resources and related information
More in the same subject area:
Poetry & poets: from c 1900 -
Literature: history & criticism

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.

 
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