Poets of Modern Ireland

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Neil Corcoran is one of Britain's most accomplished commentators on contemporary poetry. In this exciting contribution to the study of both Anglo-Irish literature and modern poetry, Corcoran brings a keen critical intelligence and an informed contextual awareness to the work of W.B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, Austin Clarke, Padraic Fallon, Louis MacNeice, Paul Muldoon and Ciaran Carson. He puts forward a powerful case for certain contextual and intertextual modes of reading the work of these poets. These contexts and intertexts established include: the contentious debate between 'nationalist' and 'revisionist' criticism; the relationship between Irish and American poetry; the writing of 'place' and its political significance; the prominent engagement with issues of sexuality and the erotic; the persistence of the religious inpulse or theological content; and the Irish language and the preoccupation with forms of translation. Poets of Modern Ireland : Text, Context, Intertext is a major contribution to the critical reception of a poetry which has been the focus of some of the most intense and vital contemporary critical debates in Britain, Ireland and America.

Reviews

'...written and argued with enviable subtlety and acuity.' TLS '...one of our best academic critics of contemporary poetry, and this book will serve to enhance his reputation. It is a lucid and intelligent account of a number of Irish poets, from Yeats, through Austin Clarke, Padraic Fallon and Louis MacNeice, to Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon and Tom Paulin, Derek Mahon, Michael Longly and Ciaran Carson.' PQR

Author Bio

Neil Corcoran was born in Cork and is currently Professor of English at the University of St Andrews.