Gerard Manley Hopkins in Context

A concise and authoritative guide to the ideas and influences shaping Hopkins's life and writing.

Martin Dubois (Edited by)

9781009183208, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 January 2025

380 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.5 cm, 0.69 kg

'An excellent overview of current Hopkins scholarship.' Jill Robson, The Hopkins Society Journal

Gerard Manley Hopkins was one of the most innovative British poets of the nineteenth century. This book provides an authoritative guide to the ideas and influences shaping Hopkins's life and writing. Consisting of thirty-eight essays by leading scholars, the book covers topics that have long attracted scholarly attention while also responding to recent critical trends. It considers Hopkins's formal innovations alongside his theological and philosophical ideas. Chapters examine his Victorian aesthetic and cultural contexts as well as the significance of his ecological imagination and response to environmental degradation. Hopkins's poetry was not widely known until the 1930s, and the book closes by discussing the distinctive nature of its reception and influence. Informed by original research but accessibly written, the essays enable a fresh engagement with the originality of Hopkins's writing and thought.

Introduction Martin Dubois
Part I. Places: 1. London Jude V. Nixon
2. Oxford Lesley Higgins
3. Wales Daniel Westover
4. Northern England Martin Dubois
5. Ireland Matthew Campbell
Part II. Aesthetic and Cultural Contexts: 6. Visual culture Elizabeth Helsinger
7. Classics R. K. R. Thornton
8. Anglo-Saxonism Joseph Phelan
9. Music Francis O'Gorman
Part III. Religious, Theological and Philosophical Contexts: 10. Tractarianism Peter Groves
11. Ancient Greek philosophy A. J. Nickerson
12. The Bible Michael Wheeler
13. Victorian Roman Catholicism Rebekah Lamb
14. Jesuit life and spirituality Philip Endean, S. J.
15. Scholastic theology Trent Pomplun
16. Sacramentalism Bernadette Waterman Ward
Part IV. Nature, Science and The Environment: 17. Ecology Joshua King
18. Environmental degradation Julia F. Saville
19. Energy physics Daniel Brown
20. Industry and technology Kirstie Blair
Part V. Gender, Sexuality and The Body: 21. Queerness and homosociality Seán Hewitt
22. Masculinity and the labouring body Fraser Riddell
23. Femininity and martyrdom Amanda Paxton
24. Eroticism Duc Dau
Part VI. Form, Genre and Poetics: 25. Rhythm Meredith Martin
26. Language Veronica Alfano
27. Address Jane Wright
28. Syntax Andrew Hodgson
29. Rhyme James Williams
30. Ode Bernadette Guthrie
31. Sonnet Michael D. Hurley
32. Letters Summer J. Star
33. Journal prose Vidyan Ravinthiran
34. Sermons Adrian Grafe
Part VII. Reception and Influence: 35. Modernist criticism and poetry Finn Fordham
36. Poetic legacies post-1950 Emily Taylor Merriman
37. Theological influence Devon Abts
38. The Anthropocene Daniel Williams
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF]