The Cambridge Companion to Modernist Poetry

A comprehensive and accessible overview of modernist poetry, its forms, its major authors and its contexts.

Alex Davis (Edited by), Lee M. Jenkins (Edited by)

9780521853057, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 July 2007

282 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm, 0.55 kg

'As an introductory text to modernist poetry this companion would be a welcome addition to any university library serving English or American literature departments.' Reference Reviews

This Companion offers the most comprehensive overview available of modernist poetry, its forms, its major authors and its contexts. The first part explores the historical and cultural contexts and sexual politics of literary modernism and the avant garde. The chapters in the second part concentrate on individual authors and movements, while the concluding part offers a comprehensive overview of the early reception and subsequent canonisation of modernist poetry. As well as insightful readings of canonical poets, the Companion features extended discussions of poets whose importance is now being increasingly recognised, such as Mina Loy, poets of the Harlem Renaissance, and postcolonial poets in the Caribbean, Africa and India. While modernist poets are often thought of as difficult, these essays will help students to understand and enjoy their experimental, playful and fascinating responses to contemporary social and cultural change and their dialogue with the arts and with each other.

Chronology
Introduction Alex Davis and Lee M. Jenkins
Part I. Contexts: 1. Modernist poetry in history David Ayers
2. Schools, movements and manifestoes Paul Peppis
3. The poetics of modernism Peter Nicholls
4. Gender, sexuality and the modernist poem Christanne Miller
Part II. Authors and Alliances: 5. Pound or Eliot: whose era? Lawrence Rainey
6. HD and revisionary mythmaking Rachel Blau DuPlessis
7. Yeats, Ireland, modernism Anne Fogarty
8. Modernist poetry in the British Isles Drew Milne
9. US modernism I. Moore, Stevens and the modernist lyric Bonnie Costello
10. US modernism II. The other tradition: Williams, Zukofsky, Olson Mark Scroggins
11. The poetry of the Harlem Renaissance Sharon L. Jones
12. Caliban's modernity: postcolonial poetry of Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean Jahan Ramazani
Part III. Receptions: 13. Modernist poetry and the canon Jason Harding
Guide to further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Poetry [DC]