A Concise Companion to Postwar British and Irish Poetry

This Concise Companion introduces students to the most important poetic figures, movements, contexts, and trends in post–war British and Irish poetry, providing a much–needed reference point in a sprawling and often contentious field. Written by critics on both sides of the Atlantic and complemented by a general chronology detailing some of the most important writers, volumes, and events of recent decades, these essays provide contexts for critical reading, situating the central issues confronting post–war British and Irish poets within the wider framework of twentieth–century poetry.

Notes on Contributors ix Acknowledgments xii Chronology xv Introduction 1 Nigel Alderman and C. D. Blanton 1 Poetic Modernism and the Century’s Wars 11 Vincent Sherry 2 The Movement and the Mainstream 32 Stephen Burt 3 Myth, History, and The New Poetry 51 Nigel Alderman 4 Region and Nation in Britain and Ireland 72 Michael Thurston 5 Form and Identity in Northern Irish Poetry 92 John P. Waters 6 Poetry and Decolonization 111 Jahan Ramazani 7 Transatlantic Currents 134 C. D. Blanton 8 Neo–Modernism and Avant–Garde Orientations 155 Drew Milne 9 Contemporary British Women Poets and the Lyric Subject 176 Linda A. Kinnahan 10 Place, Space, and Landscape 200 Eric Falci 11 Poetry and Religion 221 Romana Huk 12 Institutions of Poetry in Postwar Britain 243 Peter Middleton References 264 Index 285

Nigel Alderman is assistant professor of English at Mount Holyoke College. He previously taught at Yale University where he was awarded the Sidonie Miskimin Clauss Prize for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities and the Sarai Ribicoff Award for the Encouragement of Teaching at Yale College. He has published on both Romantic and Modern poetry and is completing a book on British literature of the sixties. C. D. Blanton is assistant professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches modern poetry. He has previously taught at Princeton University. He is currently completing a study of late modernist British poetry entitled Aftereffects, and together with Nigel Alderman he has edited Pocket Epics: British Poetry After Modernism.

Gives some sense of why poetry provides the sharpest of lenses through which to view the historical and social developments of the second half of the twentieth century, and will serve both as a useful source of reference and a provocative starting point for discussion." ( English Studies , 1 December 2011) "Engaging and uncluttered by jargon. The mix of formal and thematic issues with social and cultural contexts doubles the usefulness of this collection as a preparatory tool for students of the period." ( CHOICE , December 2009)