Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book SynopsisSurrealist Poetry presents new English translations of nearly 150 poems alongside their original French and Spanish versions.Founded by André Breton in 1924, Surrealism sought to examine the unconscious realm by means of the written or spoken word. Seeking to expand the ability of language to evoke irrational states and improbable events, it consistently strove to transcend the linguistic status quo. By stretching language to its limits and beyond, the Surrealists transformed it into an instrument for exploring the human psyche. The twenty-three poets in this collection come not only from France, where Surrealism was invented, but also from Spain, Belgium, Martinique, Mauritius, Catalonia, Mexico, Chile, and Peru. Three of them were awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (Vicente Aleixandre, Pablo Neruda, and Octavio Paz). Equipped with a critical introduction and a brief bibliography, this anthology will appeal to anyone interested in modern literature.Trade ReviewThis wide-ranging collection of poetry is outstanding in its ambition and achievements. Encompassing the work of twenty-three Surrealist poets across the Surrealist epicentre in France, to Spain, the Francophone world and Latin America, the beautifully presented side-by-side translation of poems allows for a holistic view of the vast breadth of Surrealist poetic enquiry ... [Bohn's] choice of a relatively small number of poets allows for an appreciation of a larger selection of each writer’s works: his admittedly streamlined approach, purposely devoid of any overbearing critical apparatus, allows the poems and poets to speak for themselves. This inclusive and even-handed approach will undoubtedly prove very useful to scholars of the twentieth century across disciplines. * Forum for Modern Language Studies *Willard Bohn’s well-researched, carefully chosen, and deftly translated selection of poems by many of the key names in French- and Spanish-speaking Surrealism has done the movement a great service ... [It] deals with both French and Spanish examples with bravery, skill, sensitivity, and aplomb. * Translation and Literature *Willard Bohn's Surrealist Poetry is a venture full of courage: that of a single translator interpreting French and Spanish poems of the Surrealist persuasion. He has done it—thanks be—with a sufficiently ample selection from each of the poets chosen to represent their highly individual takes on the marvelous junction of the real and unreal. Never are the selections uninteresting or flat: they are faithful to Surrealism itself. * Mary Ann Caws, Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature, English, and French, Graduate School of the City University of New York, USA, and editor of The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Poetry and Surrealist Love Poems *This bilingual anthology is a considerable achievement and an excellent complement to Bohn’s The Dada Market: An Anthology of Poetry (1983) and Reading Visual Poetry (2011). Many readers will be indebted to him for his translations of a wide selection of poems in French and Spanish written by poets both famous and unfamiliar. This anthology fills a large gap as it demonstrates the potency of the Surrealist ambition to liberate the imagination and with it poetic language. * C. Brian Morris, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Spanish Literature, University of California, Los Angeles, USA, and author of Surrealism and Spain 1920-1936 (1972) *Table of ContentsIntroduction Rafael Alberti Vicente Aleixandre Louis Aragon Braulio Arenas Antonin Artaud André Breton André Breton, René Char, and Paul Eluard Luis Cernuda Aimé Césaire René Char Malcolm de Chazal Robert Desnos Paul Eluard J. V. Foix Federico García Lorca José María Hinojosa Marianne van Hirtum Miguel Labordeta E.L.T. Mesens César Moro Pablo Neruda Octavio Paz Benjamin Péret Philippe Soupault Selected Bibliography Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisExplores the divide between practical criticism and theory in 20th century criticism to propose a new way of reading poetry. This book considers such topics as rhyme, poetic voice and language.Trade ReviewRobert Smith's On Modern Poetry dazzles and illuminates, as does poetry itself. The book is an exciting intervention in poetic criticism, and the zest with which the book apprehends as well as comprehends its material will ensure that all kinds of readers interested in poetry will be enthused to think more carefully about its idioms, strange logics, and its genres. In bringing together intuitive and intellectual attention without simply pre-empting the distinction or its affects, the book achieves what it sets out to do. -- Dr Anthony Mellors, Reader in Poetry and Poetics, Birmingham City University, UK‘Smith's writing moves with an ease and elegance that can belie the, sometimes breath-taking, flair, reach and focus of his readings... it has much to recommend it to a wide audience, from general readers, to students, to specialists.' -- Dr Clare Connors, University of East Anglia, UKSumming Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above. -- R.T. Prus, Southeastern Oklahoma State University * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction; Part I: Themes; 1. Two or Three Genealogies for Modern Poetic Theory; 2. Rhyme and Reason; 3. The Object; 4. 'You Hear Voices? You Are Possessed!'; 5. Rhetoric + Heidegger + Derrida; Part II: Readings; 6. Darkling; 7. Fl...; 8. Le Malade Imaginaire; 9. Symons in the Decade of Decadence; 10. For the Sake of a Single Poem; Conclusion: Criticism and the Case of J. H. Prynne; Bibliography; Index.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published between 1988 and 2008, these twelve essays cover a wide range of mythological and heroic poems and have been revised and updated to reflect the latest scholarship.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Essays 1. 'Voluspa and the Feast of Easter' 2. 'On Heidr and Gullveig'* 3. 'The Evolution of Havamal'* 4. 'Havamal B: a Reconstructed Poem of Sexual Intrigue'* 5. 'Wisdom from Dead Relatives: the Ljodatal Section of Havamal'* 6. 'The Paradox of Vafprudnismal'* 7. 'Motivation and Meaning in Lokasenna'* 8. 'Myth as Therapy: the Function of Prymskvida' 9. 'Volundarkvida: Origins and Interpretation'* 10. 'Female Reactions to the death of Sigurdr' 11. 'Two Sex Goddesses: Porgerdr Holgabrudr and Freyja in Hyndluljod'* 12. 'The Trouble with Father: Hervararkvida and the adaptation of traditional story-patterns'* Bibliography and Abbreviations Index

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Book SynopsisDoes a poet make himself, or do his culture and his fiction make him? Sir Philip Sidney is one of the most popular and enduring of Elizabethan authors, and one of those most preoccupied with the relationship between self, society, and art. Edward Berry's The Making of Sir Philip Sidney explores how Sidney 'made' or created himself as a poet by 'making' representations of himself in the roles of some of his most literary creations: Philisides, Astrophil, and the intrusive persona of the Defence of Poetry. Focusing on the significance of these and other self-representations throughout Sidney's career, Berry combines biography, social history, and literary criticism to achieve a carefully balanced portrayal of the poet's life and work.This is a book that makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Sidney, and is likely to appeal to both students and scholars of Sidney, as well as to those wishing to understand the cultural events that shap

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Book SynopsisWolfe's transnational and multilingual study is a landmark work in the study of classical reception that has a great deal to offer to anyone examining the literary, political, and intellectual life of early modern Europe.Trade Review'A rich survey of Homeric reception in the Renaissance... This book will appeal to students of classical reception generally and to Renaissance scholars in particular.' -- P. Nieto Choice Magazine vol 53:07:2016 'I loved this text, a wonderful read, delightfully informative, and the kind of scholarship to which the academy should aspire.' -- Gary W. Jenkins The Sixteenth Century Journal vol 47:04:2016 'The book represents a work of wide-ranging learning and careful delving, and it is a comprehensive study; therefore, it is certainly very useful and valuable to philologists, historians, and Homeric scholars.' -- Luigi Ferreri Renaissance Quarterly vol 70: 01:2017 'Among the most wide-ranging and extensively researched publications on classical reception in recent years, Homer and the Question of Strife is a welcome contribution.' -- David Katz Renaissance and Reformation, vol 39:02:2016Table of ContentsIntroduction: Homer and the Question of Strife Chapter 1: Homer, Erasmus, and the Problem of Strife Chapter 2: The Remedy of Contraries: Homer, Rabelais, and Epic Parody Chapter 3: Spenser, Homer, and the Mythography of Strife Chapter 4. Chapman's Ironic Homer Chapter 5. The Razors Edge: Homer, Milton, and the Problem of Deliberation Chapter 6: Hobbes' Homer and the Idols of the Agora Epilogue: The Homeric Contest from Vico to Arendt

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Book SynopsisThe first collection of interviews with the renowned poet of Home/Bass and other much-admired works. Spanning thirty years and drawn from literary and scholarly journals and other media, these interviews offer insights into his poetic innovation of blues and jazz and his mastery of black vernacular in poetry.

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Book SynopsisThe interviews in Conversations with Robert Morgan provide readers and scholars the first stand-alone book on Morgan's long and fascinating career as a master of multiple genres, and make a significant contribution to the understanding of American, southern, and Appalachian literature and culture.

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Book SynopsisAlexandra Berlina is Postdoctoral Researcher in Literary Studies at the University of Erfurt, Germany. Her translations of Brodsky's poems Dido and Aeneas and You can't tell a gnat... have won awards from the 'Willis Barnstone Translation Prize' and the 'The Joseph Brodsky/Stephen Spender Prize'.Robert Chandler is an award-winning poet and translator from Russian, French, and Greek. Among the writers he has translated from Russian are Alexander Pushkin, Nikolay Leskov, Vasily Grossman and Andrey Platonov. He is the co-editor of the Penguin Classics anthology Russian Poetry from Pushkin to Brodsky (2014). Penguin have also published his anthologies of Russian short stories and of Russian magic tales.Trade ReviewThe author’s sensitive and insightful readings of Brodsky’s poems both in the Russian original and in English translation—to the point where it becomes unclear which one is the original and which one the translation in any given case, and whether the neat distinction between original and translation ought to be taken for granted more generally—illuminate Brodsky’s poetics and technique to an unprecedented degree by laying bare their semantic, grammatical, syntactical, and phonological workings. * The Russian Review (reviewed by Michael Eskin) *Alexandra Berlina’s fascinating and intriguing book presents a selection of poems which Brodsky translated on his own, along with the original Russian and a line-for-line literal. What she then offers is a close reading of the end-product in both languages, showing a fine sensitivity not just to semantic correspondences (or failures of correspondence), but also to phonetic patterning and nuances. ... All in all, the book presents a persuasive case for translation, as well as the reading of a translation, as a way to get to closer grips with a poetic text. * Translation and Literature, 24 (2015), reviewed by Christopher Whyte *Berlina has succeeded in achieving her … stated goals—namely, discussing particular poems and advertising translation studies as a method of close reading. … This is a book that should interest all readers of Brodsky’s poetry, whether in Russian, English, or both, as well as those who wish to explore self-translation as a continuation of poetic creativity, not just as a secondary pursuit. Berlina writes with admirable succinctness and clarity; her authorial persona is that of an expert but approachable guide to the crossing and recrossing of borders between languages and cultures. ... She sees his self translations as occasions for the poet to play with the opportunities a new language and cultural frame of reference off ered him to rework his poems, a conclusion that is well supported by the carefully conducted and enjoyable close readings provided in this book. -- Katherine Hodgson, University of Exeter, UK * Slavic Review *Alexandra Berlina makes an invaluable contribution to our understanding of one of the major poets of the late twentieth century … her book is a model for critical engagement with translation, and a corrective to the dominance of theory over practice in the burgeoning discipline of Translation Studies … if we hope to understand and appreciate Brodsky’s accomplishment as a poet and thinker, we must confront the full corpus of his work in a dynamic, comparative fashion. Berlina does this brilliantly, and with a degree of wit that would have made her subject proud. -- Boris Dralyuk, University of St. Andrews * Slavic and East European Journal *…An important contribution to international Brodsky studies, Berlina’s book uses the poet’s self-translations to arrive at detailed reinterpretations of his work… In this way Berlina redefines the concept of translation, looking at Brodsky’s poems rendered into English by the poet himself as if they were variants of his original poems, comparable in status to Beckett’s self-translations… Berlina’s illuminating and often provocative study is worth a careful reading, if only to see how she manages to integrate Brodsky’s self-translations with the poet’s oeuvre and link them with his dislocated biography. -- Jerzy Jarniewicz, University of Lodz * Translation Studies *Joseph Brodsky’s self-translations have until recently attracted astonishingly little scholarly attention, even though Brodsky, as the winner of the Nobel Prize and Poet Laureate of the United States, was the most highly decorated of all Russian-American literary immigrants. … Self-translation is never easy. In Berlina’s opinion, what ultimately prompted Brodsky to engage in this endeavor was not really, or not primarily, the wish to make his Russian poems accessible to an American audience, or to somehow transform his Russian self into an American self. It was simply ‘the fact that translation gave Brodsky a chance to rework his poems, albeit in a different language.’ … Written in a lively style and replete with astute observations and provocative insights, Berlina’s book is a joy to read. It is highly recommended not only for Brodsky specialists, but for anyone interested in the problem of self-translation, or the intricacies of poetic translation in general. * Comparative Literature Studies *Alexandra Berlina’s book is a nuanced [and] well-informed ... reading of the bilingual poetry by the Nobel Prize-winning Russian American poet Joseph Brodsky. ... Berlina’s command of both languages, Russian and English, allows for fluent switches between the two and leads to some insightful comments on Brodsky’s texts. * Modern Language Review *An excellent introduction to Brodsky’s work, it offers a fascinating study of the relevance of translation in literary studies ... A truly fascinating book. * Literary Research *What Brodsky inherited from the Russian tradition was a belief in poetry as a sacrament; what he inherited from the Anglo-American tradition was an enjoyment of poetry as a space for the free play of the intellect. No one has written as clearly and comprehensively as Berlina about Brodsky’s successes and failures in his attempt to integrate these traditions. -- Robert Chandler, award-winning poet and translator from Russian, French, and Greek, and the editor of Penguin Classics’ Russian Short Stories from Pushkin to Buida.Alexandra Berlina's careful and ingenious analysis of Brodsky's poetry throws new light on his work, and on the process of translating Russian poetry altogether. Berlina's position as a Russian writer abroad gives her great insight into the matter of Brodsky's autotranslations. Her close readings of both poems and translations are a particular joy as they benefit from her own work as a translator of Brodsky's poetry. This is an illuminating, playful and highly original guide to the great poet. -- Sasha Dugdale, poet, translator of poetry and plays, and editor of Modern Poetry in Translation magazineBerlina's careful reading shows that Brodsky's self-translations add an illuminating dimension to his poetry. -- Marilyn Gaddis Rose, Distinguished Service Professor, State University of New York at Binghamton, USAThis study is a dazzling critique of Brodsky’s self-translations, and a revealing exposition of his translingual imagination. The analyses are stunning in their intimate knowledge of two, sometimes three languages … We believe Brodsky Translating Brodsky is a seminal, path-breaking book. It provides insights not only into translation, but into the Russian language as well as the English language; it illuminates the creative process in a multilingual worldly poet, for whom the differences in language serve as catalysts for original composition. For this, as well as for the innumerable incisive close readings in Brodsky's oeuvre, we believe Alexandra Berlina's Brodsky Translating Brodsky: Poetry in Translation deserves the 2016 Anna Balakian Prize for the best first book by a young comparatist. * Representing the Anna Balakian Prize Committee: Manfred Schmeling, Honorary President AILC/ICLA *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Note on the Text Foreword: Post-Modernist Chants, Robert Chandler 1. What Is It All About? 2. “December in Florence” 2.1. The Matter of Meter and the Force of Form 2.2. “The doors take in air, exhale steam; you, however, won’t…” 2.3 “Sunk in raw twilight, the pupil blinks but gulps…” 2.4. “Cats check at noon under benches …” 2.5. “A man gets reduced to pen’s rustle on paper…” 2.6. “Quays resemble stalled trains…” 2.7. “In a dusty café, in the shade of your cap…” 2.8. “Taking in air, exhaling steam…” 2.9. “The stone nest resounds with a piercing squeal…” 2.10 “There are cities one won’t see again…” 3. Three Nativity Poems 3.1. “Star of the Nativity” 3.2. “Nativity” 3.3. “Lullaby” 3.4. A Delicate Balance: Brodsky’s Nativity Poetry 4. Poems à Clef: M.B.’s Birthday 4.1. “The Polar Explorer” 4.2. “Minefield Revisited” 5. Elegies 5.1. “In Memoriam” 5.2. “In Memory of my Father: Australia,” “August Rain” 5.3. “To a Friend: In Memoriam” 6. Beyond Translation: “Centaurs” and Other Hybrids 6.1. Word Play in Translation and the Centauric Self-Portrait 6.2. “Centaurs” 6.3. A Matter of (Con-)Sequence 6.4. Beyond Translation: “Epitaph for a Centaur” 7. Further Beyond Translation: “Sextet” and Other Excavations 7.1. “An eyelid is twitching...” 7.2. “Sometimes in the desert you hear a voice” 7.2. “For thirty-six years I’ve stared at fire” 7.3. “Where’s that?” 7.4. “Was the word ever uttered?” 7.5. “And I dread my petals’ joining the crowned knot” 7.6. “Letter to an Archeologist” and the Translation-Creation-Continuum 8. Themes Taking Root in Translation and Other Tendencies 8.1. Wet Dreams 8.2. Hurtful Horizons 8.3. More Tendencies in Translation Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisRichard Elliott is Senior Lecturer in Music at Newcastle University, UK.Trade ReviewTaking a literary and musical path – Lear and Carroll, literary modernism, translation, sonic art and pop records - Richard Elliott provides a sensible view of the nonsensical. Formed of much wordy noise, copious theory lightly handled, and palpable fondness in the writing, The Sound of Nonsense is a quietly provocative manifesto on nonsense’s behalf. * Dai Griffiths, Senior Lecturer in Music, Oxford Brookes University, UK *Elliott's Sound of Nonsense is a deliciously noisy book, a lively sonic romp that enjoins its readers to be enjoyed aloud. It chants and enchants us through realms of utterance shaped by astonishingly diverse artists including Lewis Carroll and Hugo Ball, James Joyce and Bob Dylan, Velimir Khlebnikov and Jaap Blonk. Their often only just speakable tones and textures of proto-lexical sounds lure us into that zaum wonderland Paul Schmidt calls "beyonsense". Elliott's masterful, thoroughly useful scholarship is offset by his contagious delight in his subject. Echoes of poetry freed from semantic shackles, of scat, beatbox, and doowop, bounce off the page to activate our readership via the "mixing desk of the ear". This invigorating Sound of Nonsense makes sound sense. * Sally Jane Norman, Director of the New Zealand School of Music/Te Koki - Victoria University Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand *There’s no sense like nonsense, and here’s a no-nonsense survey of it, from the simply silly to the profoundly pointed—a guide to the art of nonsense across cultural levels, at once scholarly and entertaining, original and enlightening. * Paul Dutton, Writer and Oral Sound Artist, Canada *Richard Elliott’s The Sound of Nonsense is an exhilarating, well-informed, and very well written book. Elliott shows an easy familiarity with sources in many languages, including Russian. His principal theoretical assertion is that nonsense occurs in the moment “when sense-making is forced into code-switching;” he also offers the suggestion that nonsense as such supports sociality. Although the book appears to be principally about popular culture, it works closely with sound poetry and with recent experimental styles in modern vocal performance, revealing how they blend with the “popular” forms. It is a work that is rewarding not only for its ideas, but for its searching analysis of individual songs and unusual word-sound combinations. A satisfying book. * Irving Massey, Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University at Buffalo, USA *A cray and splendiferous example of how sound studies and its necessarily interdisciplinary modes of analysis will lead the way into new intellectual territory. Ranging widely from Lewis Carroll, Hugo Ball, and Gertrude Stein to John Cage, Bob Dylan, and Rahzel, The Sound of Nonsense is much more than a sonic intervention into nonsense scholarship, it is a bridge between music and literature that will open new lines of critical inquiry into the social life of words. Richard Elliott puts the ram in the rama lama ding dong. * J. Griffith Rollefson, author of Flip the Script *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1: The Sound of Nonsense 2: The Sound of the Page 3: Silly Noises 4: Pop Hearts Nonsense Conclusion Bibliography Discography Videography

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisThis book contains the collected poetry of James Joyce. It includes ''Chamber Music'', ''Pomes Penyeach'', and ''Ecce Puer''. James Joyce was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1882 and is considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. He published his first short story in 1904 and wrote many poems and novels including A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1914), Ulysses (1922), and Finnegans Wake in 1939. This book is a perfect addition to the bookshelf of those who admire James Joyce and collect his works.

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Book SynopsisA collection of essays on the intricacies and aesthetics of postmodern poetics.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis“Ajuan Mance’s original and provocative study fills a gap in the scholarship on African American women poets. The historical sweep of her analysis of these poets’ efforts at self-representation is as impressive as the depth of her analysis of individual poems. Students and scholars of African American poetry or of African American women writers will find Professor Mance’s study a rich, invaluable resource. Inventing Black Women incisively delineates the historical contexts that shaped the intricate and troubled relationships among gender, race, and poetry.”--Virginia C. Fowler, Virginia Tech UniversityInventing Black Women fills important gaps in our understanding of how African American women poets have resisted those conventional notions of gender and race that limit the visibility of Black female subjects. The first historical and thematic survey of African American women's poetry, this book examines the key developments that have shaped the growing body of poems by and about Black women over the nearly 125 years since the end of slavery and Reconstruction, as it offers incisive readings of individual works by important poets such as Alice B. Neal, Maggie Pogue Johnson, Alice Dunbar Nelson, Sonia Sanchez, Lucille Clifton, Audre Lorde, and many others.Ajuan Maria Mance establishes that the history of African American women's poetry revolves around the struggle of the Black female poet against two marginalizing forces: the widespread association of womanhood with the figure of the middle-class, white female; and the similar association of Blackness with the figure of the African American male. In so doing, she looks closely at the major trends in Black women's poetry during each of four critical moments in African American literary history: the post- Reconstruction era from 1877 to 1910; the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s; the Black Arts Movement from 1965 to 1975; and the late twentieth century from 1975 to 2000.Inventing Black Women will prove an invaluable resource for scholars and students of American literature, African American studies, and women's studies.

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Book SynopsisLissa Wolsak, a poet who seemingly emerged fully-formed in the mid-1990s, now offers access to the realized body of her work in this collection. Neither easily classified nor directly traceable to a particular school or lineage, she stands instead within her own continuously evolving context-one as free of convention and fashion as it is independent of thought outside the work itself. The mirror would do well to reflect further, demands Jean Cocteau's Orphic radio voice, and Wolsak's poetry answers to this strange admonition: For the self-reflective moment in her work takes us far beyond familiar literary practices of self-attention and recursive discourse. Again and again this work reaches a genuinely mysterious interpenetration of vivid awareness, renewed language, and human care.SQUEEZED LIGHT includes all of Wolsak's previously published poetry to date, her essay in poetics An Heuristic Prolusion, an interview with the author, and an introductory essay by George Quasha with Charles Stein.

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