The Cambridge Companion to Twentieth-Century British and Irish Women's Poetry

Aimed at students and poetry enthusiasts wanting to deepen their knowledge of some of the finest modern poets.

Jane Dowson (Edited by)

9780521120210, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 17 March 2011

240 pages, 4 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.3 x 1 cm, 0.39 kg

'Highly recommended.' The Times Higher Education Supplement

This Companion provides new ways of reading a wide range of influential women's poetry. Leading international scholars offer insights on a century of writers, drawing out the special function of poetry and the poets' use of language, whether it is concerned with the relationship between verbal and visual art, experimental poetics, war, landscape, history, cultural identity or 'confessional' lyrics. Collectively, the chapters cover well established and less familiar poets, from Edith Sitwell and Mina Loy, through Stevie Smith, Sylvia Plath and Elizabeth Jennings to Anne Stevenson, Eavan Boland and Jo Shapcott. They also include poets at the forefront of poetry trends, such as Liz Lochhead, Jackie Kay, Patience Agbabi, Caroline Bergvall, Medbh McGuckian and Carol Ann Duffy. With a chronology and guide to further reading, this book is aimed at students and poetry enthusiasts wanting to deepen their knowledge of some of the finest modern poets.

1. Introduction Jane Dowson
2. Post/modernist rhythms and voices: Edith Sitwell and Stevie Smith to Jo Shapcott and Selima Hill Ian Gregson
3. Reframing women's war poetry Claire Buck
4. Verbal and visual art in twentieth-century British women's poetry William May
5. Towards a new confessionalism: Elizabeth Jennings and Sylvia Plath Jane Dowson
6. The 'mid-Atlantic imagination': Mina Loy, Anne Stevenson, Ruth Fainlight, Eva Salzman and Anne Rouse Melanie Petch
7. The Irish history wars and Irish women's poetry Catriona Clutterbuck
8. Interculturalism: Imtiaz Dharker, Patience Agbabi, Jackie Kay and contemporary Irish poets Lee M. Jenkins
9. Post-pastoral perspectives on landscape and culture Alice Entwistle
10. Experimental 'work at the language-face' Linda A. Kinnahan
11. Carol Ann Duffy, Medbh McGuckian and ruptures in the lines of communication Brian Caraher
Guide to further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Gender studies: women [JFSJ1], Literary studies: poetry & poets [DSC], Literary studies: from c 1900 - [DSBH]