This guide to twentieth-century poetry is intended to provide an accessible and lively introduction for students, as well as a useful reference for specialists. It aims to offer a foundation for further independent research in the period. In line with other guides from the same series, the study is divided into four sections: background and contexts; biographical essays on key authors; critical essays on key texts; themes and topics. Inevitably, omissions from the lists of key authors and texts will prove controversial. Even doubling the representation would not have avoided unfortunate exclusions. Given the constraints of space, the author has chosen to focus in detail on a small number of writers, instead of attempting a cursory all-inclusiveness. He will therefore be less concerned with justifying my omissions than my inclusions. Selection has been made primarily on the grounds of literary merit, but has also allowed for the immediate effect and longer-term influence of a writer or text.
In the case of Ted Hughes, for example, the decision has been to examine Birthday Letters, not because I believe it is his strongest book, but because of its unprecedented impact on the literary scene and beyond.
- ISBN10 0631227067
- ISBN13 9780631227069
- Publish Date 5 July 2002
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Blackwell Publishers
- Format Paperback
- Pages 320
- Language English