Victorian Poets: A Critical Reader

Heirs to the idealized world of the Romantics, darker themes emerged in the era of the Victorians. Victorian Poets: A Critical Reader features a collection of thought–provoking critical essays focusing on various aspects of Victorian–era poetry from the 1830s to the 1890s. Featuring contributions from a variety of distinguished scholars, the essays illustrate the wide range of innovative critical approaches to this extraordinary body of poetry and poetics, including attention to texts, words, forms, modes, and sub–genres. A variety of reinterpretations and critical reassessments is presented, driven by contemporary ideological interests, including questions of gender, selfhood, and body issues. The essays also reveal theoretical approaches informed by structuralism, post–structuralism, and deconstruction.

Valentine Cunningham is Professor of English Language and Literature, Oxford University, and Senior Research Fellow in English, Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His publications include Reading After Theory (2002), Victorian Poetry Now: Poets, Poems, Poetics (2011) and King Lear:  the Connell Guide (2012).