Barry MacSweeney and the Politics of Post-War British Poetry [electronic resource] : Seditious Things /
Roberts, Luke.author.
This book examines the literary impact of famed British poet, Barry MacSweeney, who worked at the forefront of poetic discovery in post-war Britain. Agitated equally by politics and the possibilities of artistic experimentation, Barry MacSweeney was ridiculed in the press, his literary reputation only recovering towards the end of his life which was cut short by alcoholism. With close readings of MacSweeney alongside his contemporaries, precursors, and influences, including J.H. Prynne, Shelley, Jack Spicer, and Sylvia Plath, Luke Roberts offers a fresh introduction to the field of modern poetry. Richly detailed with archival and bibliographic research, this book recovers the social and political context of MacSweeney’s exciting, challenging, and controversial impact on modern and contemporary poetry.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. ‘here we all are to greet you' -- 2. Books, Devices, Verbal Chicanery, and Cosmological Range -- 3. Strikers with Poems: from Green Cabaret to Black Torch -- 4. Seeing and Being Seen: Serial Poetry and Surveillance, 1970-1975 -- 5. Into the Dangerous Decade: 1979-1982 -- 6. Class and Representation: Wild Knitting to Hellhound Memos -- 7. Pearl on the Law -- 8. Conclusion: Nostalgia for the Future -- Bibliographies -- Index.
This book examines the literary impact of famed British poet, Barry MacSweeney, who worked at the forefront of poetic discovery in post-war Britain. Agitated equally by politics and the possibilities of artistic experimentation, Barry MacSweeney was ridiculed in the press, his literary reputation only recovering towards the end of his life which was cut short by alcoholism. With close readings of MacSweeney alongside his contemporaries, precursors, and influences, including J.H. Prynne, Shelley, Jack Spicer, and Sylvia Plath, Luke Roberts offers a fresh introduction to the field of modern poetry. Richly detailed with archival and bibliographic research, this book recovers the social and political context of MacSweeney’s exciting, challenging, and controversial impact on modern and contemporary poetry.
British literature.
Poetry.
Literature, Modern-20th century.
British and Irish Literature.
Poetry and Poetics.
Twentieth-Century Literature.