Literary studies: poetry and poets Books

Book SynopsisProvides an analysis of Western culture during the Second World War that won the Pulitzer Prize and inspired a symphony by Leonard Bernstein as well as a ballet by Jerome Robbins.Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2011 "[Auden's] most significant piece of work... [W]e have in W. H. Auden a master musician of rhythm and note, unable to be dull, in fact an enchanter, under the magic of indigenous gusto ... The Age of Anxiety assures us that fear and lust have, in faith and purity, a cure so potent we need never know panic or be defeated by Self."--Marianne Moore, New York Times "The Age of Anxiety (1947), perhaps the finest of them all, tests Auden's ideas within the experience of modernity."--Lachlan MacKinnon, Times Literary Supplement "[M]agnificent ... [and] enormously rich in allusion, sound, and intellectual power... For pessimism and naturalism and virtuosity, The Age of Anxiety makes one think of Shakespeare's Tempest."--Jacques Barzun, Harper's Magazine "[An]emotionally stunning work... [O]ne of the splendid poems of our language."--M. L. Rosenthal, New York Herald Tribune "Princeton University Press's new critical, annotated edition of The Age of Anxiety seeks to repair and renew contemporary readers' relationship with the poem. That it should triumphantly succeed in this task, however, has less to do with unraveling the poem's intricacies than with clearly showing how its many knots are tied. In an expansive preface and through rigorous textual notes, editor and Auden scholar Alan Jacobs outlines the circumstances of the poem's composition, traces the relations between psychology and religious belief as they play out in the text, and firmly situates the work in its historical moment... It can only be hoped that this handsome new edition brings The Age of Anxiety to a new 'pitiful handful'. Those lucky few will discover in its pages one of the last century's great, and greatly neglected, poems."--Geordie Williamson, Australian "This new edition contains an elegant, unostentatious commentary by Alan Jacobs, an American professor whose previous books include a cultural history of Original Sin."--Richard Davenport-Hines, The Spectator "Elegantly printed, [The Age of Anxiety] is graced by [Alan] Jacobs's essay-length introduction, which traces the poem's evolution from the time Auden moved from Europe to the US in 1939 to its publication both in Britain (1947) and the US (1948)."--Choice "This new edition of Auden's The Age of Anxiety under review here provides a timely occasion for the reconceptualization of the structures of the collective imagination in the era of global violence and viral media spectacle. Benefiting from Alan Jacob's revealing and comprehensive prefactory note, the volume invites concerted theoretical effort toward the configuration of a post-apocalyptic poetics."--Nigel Mcloughlin, ABC StudiesTable of ContentsPreface vii Introduction xi The Age of Anxiety 1 Appendix: Two Letters on Metrical Matters 109 Textual Notes 113

Read more less

Book SynopsisLunch in Soho with a former lover - but Zanzotti''s is under new management, and as the wine takes effect fond memories give way to something closer to the bone . . .Christopher Reid''s poem, which since its first publication has been filmed by the BBC and presented on stage in numerous venues, follows the lunchtime reunion of two long-separated lovers. Every smallest detail is cherished, as step by step the narrative moves towards its tragicomic outcome.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIntended for all readers of Shakespeare, this beautiful and ground-breaking book arranges Shakespeare's sonnets printed in 1609 in chronological order and intersperses the sonnets from the plays among them. A lively introduction provides essential background, while explanatory notes and modern English paraphrases illuminate the sonnets' meanings.Trade Review'What a fresh and lovely idea! I've been speaking the sonnets for most of my life. They are such wonderful training for an actor, and the notes and paraphrases in this book are just what we all need to guide us through them.' Judi Dench'This new arrangement of Shakespeare's sonnets is a revelation. Paul Edmondson, and Stanley Wells have truly illuminated the author's themes, preoccupations and obsessions. In so doing the poems have a fresh, and startlingly clear narrative progression. Thanks to their scholarship I found myself experiencing this work as never before. There is a directness, simplicity, and humanity, which shines from the page. It was an honour to read them in this form. I hope a large audience will enjoy seeing (and hearing), this new light shone on a great literary treasure.' Kenneth Branagh'Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells have done something daring, controversial, and richly illuminating. To the 154 poems collected in the celebrated volume of Shakespeare's Sonnets they have conjoined the sonnets that appear in the plays – such as the famous lines shared by Romeo and Juliet. To these they have added a number of passages from the plays that are in effect close relations to the conventional sonnet form. The result is to break down the walls and set Shakespeare's famous sequence in a much expanded field of poetic making. But that is not all: jettisoning the order in which the sonnets first appeared in print, Edmondson and Wells arrange them in what they take to be their chronological order of composition. The result is something radical and unsettling. To make these deeply familiar poems seem unexpected and new is a significant achievement.' Stephen Greenblatt, Author of Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics and The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve'A marvellously refreshing new look at Shakespeare's devotion to the sonnet form, expanding our understanding of the published sonnets by adding those he included in the plays. The single sentence description of each sonnet is also immensely useful and helpful to even the most seasoned reader.' Gregory Doran, Royal Shakespeare Company, Artistic Director'This is a book of clarity and love which shadows the mind in time of Shakespeare the poet and in so doing brings us closer than ever before to his own awareness of the reach of his genius.' Carol Ann Duffy'All the Sonnets of Shakespeare presents a wealth of valuable material and compelling interpretations in a clear, comprehensible, and convincing style that will hold appeal not only for Shakespeare scholars and students, but for all devotees of 'the supreme poet-dramatist' and his work.' Deb Miller, DC Metro Theater Arts'A valuable project, and one which achieves what Shakespeare editions so often promise but so rarely deliver: which is to prompt a genuinely new way of looking at these familiar works.' Daniel Swift, The Spectator'What Edmondson and Wells have done is both groundbreaking and profoundly significant … whether dipping in for a brief encounter or wanting to fully immerse oneself in the entire Sonnet canon, with scholarly explication and guidance, All the Sonnets of Shakespeare is a one volume tour de force. 400 years after his death, Edmondson and Wells have breathed new life into our engagement with his poetic output and a revised understanding of the man, his motives and his responses to creative muses … I strongly recommend grabbing a copy of their book and rediscovering the Sonnets for yourself! The casual reader will be both enlightened and entertained and the scholar will be academically stimulated.' Paul Spalding-Mulcock, Yorkshire Times'… a model of editing, which scraps the conventional sentimentalities and lets us read the Sonnets as poems - explorations into worlds of possible feeling, speech and thought, rather than coded memoirs.' Rowan Williams, New Statesman, Books of the Year 2020'In putting Shakespeare's dramatic sonnets alongside the 1609 group, this edition exhibits the breadth with which he handles the form.' Molly Clark, Times Literary Supplement'This book is a gift to scholars and students … This study will prove valuable to all who specialize in Shakespearean topics.' M. H. Kealy, Choice'Exploring the sonnets hidden in some of Shakespeare's most revered plays gives a new flavour and dynamic to those characters. It draws our attention to the author's intention in each play, where he makes a character unexpectedly speak in poetry. It illuminates that moment and poses new questions. The detailed and extremely in-depth introduction strongly supports the original works and allows us to examine all of Shakespeare's sonnets in a new, exciting and precise way. I learned a lot from reading this. I hope you do too.' Lolita Chakrabarti'… this is a volume into which one can dip suggestively, creatively and repeatedly to find things new. It is, frankly, the most exciting reconception of the Sonnets since John Benson's Poems in 1640, and the same motive of making them 'serene, clear and elegantly plain' serves to intensify their drama, their diversity and their brilliance.' Jane Kingsley-Smith, Shakespeare SurveyTable of ContentsIntroduction Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells; About this Volume; Sonnets; Textual Notes, All the Sonnets of Shakespeare: Literal Paraphrases, Numerical Index of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609), Index of First Lines.

Read more less

Book SynopsisSimon Armitage''s new collection is by turns a voice and a chorus: a hyper-vivid array of dramatic monologues, allegories, parables and tall tales. Here comes everybody: Snoobie and Carla, Lippincott, Wittmann, Yoshioka, Bambuck, Dr Amsterdam, Preminger. The man whose wife drapes a border-curtain across the middle of the marital home; the English astronaut with a terrestrial outlook on life; an orgiastic cast of unreconstructed pie-worshipers at a Northern sculpture farm; the soap-opera supremacists at their zoo-wedding; the driver who picks up hitchhikers as he hurtles towards a head-on collision with Thatcherism; a Christian cheese-shop proprietor in the wrong part of town; the black bear with a dark secret, the woman who curates giant snowballs in the chest freezer. Celebrities and nobodies, all come to the ball.The storyteller who steps in and out of this human tapestry changes, trickster-style, from poem to poem, but retains some identifying traits: the melancholy of th

Read more less

Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offers a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced introduces students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst published in 1572, The Lusiads is one of the greatest epic poems of the Renaissance, immortalizing Portugal''s voyages of discovery with an unrivalled freshness of observation. At the centre of The Lusiads is Vasco da Gama''s pioneer voyage via southern Africa to India in 1497-98. The first European artist to cross the equator, Camoes''s narrative reflects the novelty and fascination of that original encounter with Africa, India and the Far East. The poem''s twin symbols are the Cross and the Astrolabe, and its celebration of a turning point in mankind''s knowledge of the world unites the old map of the heavens with the newly discovered terrain on earth. Yet it speaks powerfully, too, of the precariousness of power, and of the rise and decline of nationhood, threatened not only from without by enemies, but from within by loss of integrity and vision. The first translation of The Lusiads for almost half a century, this new edition is complemented by an illuminating introduction and extensive notes. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World''s Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford''s commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBukowski's unmistakable charisma - an ex-down-and-outer who wrote of booze and loneliness in maverick, confident free verse - made him one of the world's most popular poets long before he died in 1994. More than a decade later, death has not slowed his production. This collection is selected from an archive of verse that the author left to be published after his death. It includes poems of love and sex, advice to so-called losers (as he once was) to have confidence in themselves (as he did), gambling laments and humbling poems accepting his own imminent ultimate full stop.Trade ReviewThe thing about Bukowski is, when you read what he has to say, he's right. * * Sean Penn * *We all knew Bukowski was a tough guy, but who would have guessed that even the grave could not shut him up? * * Billy Collins * *Full of sad, hilarious lamentation and schadenfreude. As usual, not for the kiddies. But for the adults, God, yes. * * Booklist * *In an age of conformity Bukowski wrote about the people nobody wanted to be: the ugly, the selfish, the lonely, the mad. * * Observer * *A laureate of American low life. * * Time * *

Read more less

Book SynopsisFirst ever critical study of Tolkien's little-known essay, which reveals how language invention shaped the creation of Middle-earth and beyond, to George R R Martin's Game of Thrones.J.R.R. Tolkien's linguistic invention was a fundamental part of his artistic output, to the extent that later on in life he attributed the existence of his mythology to the desire to give his languages a home and peoples to speak them. As Tolkien puts it in A Secret Vice', the making of language and mythology are related functions'.In the 1930s, Tolkien composed and delivered two lectures, in which he explored these two key elements of his sub-creative methodology. The second of these, the seminal Andrew Lang Lecture for 19389, On Fairy-Stories', which he delivered at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, is well known. But many years before, in 1931, Tolkien gave a talk to a literary society entitled A Hobby for the Home', where he unveiled for the first time to a listening public the art that he had Trade Review‘Anyone who has interest in language, linguistics, storytelling, or simply just fantasy in general should add this to their top shelf’5* Amazon Reviewer ‘An absolute MUST HAVE for any Tolkien fan!’5* Amazon Reviewer

Read more less

Book SynopsisBy the Poet LaureateThe Alliterative Morte Arthure - the title given to a four-thousand line poem written sometime around 1400 - was part of a medieval Arthurian revival which produced such masterpieces as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and Sir Thomas Malory''s prose Morte D''Arthur. The Death of King Arthur deals in the cut-and-thrust of warfare and politics: the ever-topical matter of Britain''s relationship with continental Europe, and of its military interests overseas. Simon Armitage is already the master of this alliterative music, as his earlier version of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2006) so resourcefully and exuberantly showed. His new translation restores a neglected masterpiece of story-telling, by bringing vividly to life its entirely medieval mix of ruthlessness and restraint.

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs editor and publisher, his work is unrelenting, commissioning works ranging from Michael Roberts's The Modern Mind to Elizabeth Bowen's anthology The Faber Book of Modern Stories.

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Bursting with energy and surprising locutions. . . . Even the most familiar poets seem somehow new within the context of Joy.”—David Skeel, Wall Street JournalSelected as the 2020 Yale Book Award for Eastern Massachusetts“This bold anthology provides readers with a wealth of reflection and insight on the epiphanies, large and small, that help give meaning to our lives. These poems remind us that joy is deep, and necessary.”—Kathleen Norris, author of Acedia & Me and Journey: New & Selected Poems“The force of this wonderful collection (and the wonderful introductory essay) is the recognition that joy cannot be argued away. In the centre of our human nightmares something opens and flowers, completely unreasonably, completely undeniably. That is what is celebrated here.”—Rowan Williams, theologian and poet (Cambridge)“Joy is an indispensable collection that will buoy up the darkest reader. Truly, Christian Wiman is a genius to have ranged so far (and deep!) to gather in one spot so many unforgettable poems to convince this glum bunny there’s more light than dark in our wiggly world.”—Mary Karr, author of The Liars’ Club, Lit, and Sinners Welcome“This is an original, necessary, and illuminating book: it shines a light on an often overlooked aspect of poetry, and on Wiman’s own work, too.”—Paul Elie, author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Reinventing Bach

Read more less

Book SynopsisKeenly aware that thousands of books have been written about The Divine Comedy, Prue Shaw—one of the world’s foremost Dante authorities–is convinced that an accessible, non-scholarly work that explicated Dante is needed. Just as Dante becomes a poet with a prophetic mission, Reading Dante becomes far more than an exegesis of Dante’s three-part Commedia. It offers a literary experience that lifts the reader into the universal realms of poetry and mythology, revealing how one can recover time-past through memory and language. Whether challenging the notion that Dante was vindictive, decoding the numerology that can confound readers or positioning Dante’s tortured life within the framework of fourteenth-century Florence, Shaw creates an astonishingly lyrical work that will appeal to both those who’ve never read the Commedia and those who have. Reading Dante underscores Dante’s belief that poetry can change human lives.Trade Review"Reading Dante is an experience of a lifetime... But, like Dante himself, at large in the frightening wood, you need a companion for the journey, and it is difficult to imagine one more enlightening than Prue Shaw." -- The Spectator"Shaw’s sharp, brilliantly engaging book delivers masterfully on its promise to fuel love for the Comedy precisely by dispelling readers’ anxieties, and showing how the great underlying concerns of this work are not only those of every work of art but are the stuff of life itself. Moreover, she keeps us so enthralled with her compelling and fast-paced prose that the only reason one would want to put down this book is to open the one she is talking about." -- Book of the Week - Times Higher Education"Writing an introduction[to The Divine Comedy] for the general reader is not an easy task. Prue Shaw has done this in a way that manages to be at the same time scholarly, compelling and original." -- The Times Literary Supplement"Reading Dante is undoubtedly one of the best introductions to Dante's Commedia available. It is accurate, informative but never dull or patronising. All the important topics are covered, while steering clear of academic jargon... It is a virtuoso performance." -- The Tablet

Read more less

Book SynopsisKatharine Towers' second collection is a book of small wonders. From a house drowning in roses to crickets on an August day, from Nerval's lobster to the surrealism of flower remedies, these poems explore the fragility of our relationship with the natural world. Towers also shows us what that relationship can aspire to be: each poem attunes us to another aspect of that world, and shows what strange connections might be revealed when we properly attend to it. The Remedies is a lyric, unforgettable collection which offers just the spiritual assuagement its title promises, and shows Towers emerging as a major poetic talent.Trade ReviewThere is so much to praise about the writing: clarity, generosity and grace. There are no barriers between poem and reader. . .[Towers] writes with a marvellously gentle wit and a metrical intelligence. . .Quite how she manages the balancing act between entertainment and something that comes close to a prayer, that catches at your throat, is beyond me * Guardian *Each of these short poems shines with soft, lyrical grace; she writes about birds, flowers and objects in clear, generous language that reaches out towards the reader, embracing and never pushing away. * Daily Mail *

Read more less

Book SynopsisElizabeth Bishop is one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. When she died in 1979, she had only published four collections, yet had won virtually every major American literary award, including the Pulitzer Prize. She maintained close friendships with poets such as Marianne Moore and Robert Lowell, and her work has always been highly regarded by other writers. In surveys of British poets carried out in 1984 and 1994 she emerged as a surprising major choice or influence for many, from Andrew Motion and Craig Raine to Kathleen Jamie and Lavinia Greenlaw. A virtual orphan from an early age, Elizabeth Bishop was brought up by relatives in New England and Nova Scotia. The tragic circumstances of her life - from alcoholism to repeated experiences of loss in her relationships with women - nourished an outsider's poetry notable both for its reticence and tentativeness. She once described a feeling that 'everything is interstitial' and reminds us in her poetry - in a way that is both radical and subdued - that understanding is at best provisional and that most vision is peripheral. Since her death, a definitive edition of Elizabeth Bishop's "Complete Poems" (1983) has been published, along with "The Collected Prose" (1984), her letters in "One Art" (1994), her paintings in "Exchanging Hats" (1996) and Brett C. Millier's important biography (1993). In America, there have been numerous critical studies and books of academic essays, but in Britain only studies by Victoria Harrison (1995) and Anne Stevenson (1998) have done anything to raise Bishop's critical profile. "Elizabeth Bishop: Poet of the Periphery" was the first collection of essays on Bishop to be published in Britain, and draws on work presented at the first UK Elizabeth Bishop conference, held at Newcastle University. It brings together papers by both academic critics and leading poets, including Michael Donaghy, Vicki Feaver, Jamie McKendrick, Deryn Rees-Jones and Anne Stevenson. Academic contributors include Professor Barbara Page of Vassar College, home of the Elizabeth Bishop Papers.

Read more less

Book SynopsisElegies of Chu (in Chinese, Chuci), one of the two surviving collections of ancient Chinese poetry, is a key source for the whole tradition of Chinese poetry. Because the elegies contain passionate expressions of political protest as well as shamanistic themes of magic spells and wandering spirits, they present an alternative face of early Chinese culture; one that does not align with orthodox Confucianism. This translation employs literary English devices in order to emphasise the original structure of these Chinese poems. It also examines the extraordinarily vivid diction of the source texts, including of onomatopoeia, ornate descriptions, exotic flowers, dramatic landscapes, metaphors and startling similes. This translation will be based on the original anthology compiled in the Han dynasty by Wang Yi (2nd century CE), and contains a selection of poems that were collected from the 3rd century BCE through the Han dynasty. The anthology provides readers with an understanding of Chinese literature and its evolution from free-spirited, mythico-religious songs to the more formal, polished style of the Han court.Trade ReviewThe harmony of erudition and elegance of Williams' renditions will allow his translation to become the standard English version of the Chuci text for years to come. * William H. Nienhauser, Jr., Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews *Table of ContentsIntroduction A Note on the Translation Select Bibliography Timeline 1: Sublimating Sorrow (Li sao) 2: Nine Phases 3: Nine Songs 4: Heavenly Questions 5: Nine Avowals 6: Far Roaming 7: Divination 8: Fisherman 9: Summons to the Recluse 10: Summons to the Soul 11: Nine Longings 12: Seven Remonstrances 13: Nine Threnodies 14: Lamenting Time's Fate 15: Rueful Oath 16: Greater Summons 17: Nine Yearnings Explanatory Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY DIRECTOR JANE CAMPIONJohn Keats died in penury and relative obscurity in 1821, aged only 25. He is now seen as one of the greatest English poets and a genius of the Romantic age. This collection, which contains all his most memorable works and a selection of his letters, is a feast for the senses, displaying Keats'' gift for gorgeous imagery and sensuous language, his passionate devotion to beauty, as well as some of the most moving love poetry ever written.Trade ReviewLittered with sensuous descriptions of nature's beauty, Keats's odes also pose profound philosophical questions * Sunday Telegraph *Sublime * Sunday Times *In what we call natural magic, he ranks with Shakespeare...no-one else in English poetry has...his perception of loveliness * Matthew Arnold *One of the half-dozen greatest English writers * Edmund Wilson *His letters are certainly the most notable and most important ever written by any English poet * T.S. Eliot *

Read more less

Book SynopsisWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY SIR PAUL MCCARTNEYFirst published in 1964 and 1965, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works are a brilliantly inventive and offbeat collection of John Lennon's stories, drawings and poems.Trade ReviewLunatic humour... it defies description. It owes something to Lear's nonsense books, but from there on in Lennon is on his own... Zany, offbeat, and illustrated by his grotesque spidery pen. It jolts the reader into gusts of laughter * Guardian *Very funny... beautifully designed * Times Literary Supplement *Irresistible...the drawings are marvellous * Sunday Telegraph *Fascinating.... It goes down like pure whimsy and then back-kicks like a sick mule. * Sunday Times *Very inventive... It's all in Lennon's favour that despite the adulation and soft soap, he has remained as tough, arrogant and uncompromising * Observer *

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe inspiration for the major motion picture The Green Knight starring Dev Patel.An early English poem of magic, chivalry and seduction Composed during the fourteenth century in the English Midlands, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight describes the events that follow when a mysterious green-coloured knight rides into King Arthur's Camelot in deep mid-winter. The mighty knight presents a challenge to the court: he will allow himself to be struck by one blow, on the condition that he will be allowed to return the strike on the following New Year's Eve. Sir Gawain takes up the challenge, decapitating the stranger - only to see the Green Knight seize up his own severed head and ride away, leaving Gawain to seek him out and honour their pact. Blending Celtic myth and Christian faith, Gawain is among the greatest Middle English poems: a tale of magic, chivalry and seduction.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisVery Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, InspiringHorace was one of the greatest poets during the reign of Augustus and is seen as a mark of cultural sophistication since this time. This Very Short Introduction examines how Horace''s poetry has exerted enormous influence but argues that it is best understood within the traditions of ancient literature. Llewellyn Morgan guides the reader through the dizzying vagaries of Horace''s biography, which reflects the political and social instability of the period. His poetry, and the life he artfully constructs and presents to us in it, engages both with the greatest crisis that Rome had ever faced, and its resolution by the first Emperor. Horace is Rome''s laureate, and through him we experience the anxieties and triumphs of his age. For posterity, Horace has served for a model of the good life, a promoter of enlightened retirement, but has also exemplified poetic artistry, and is the most creative manipulator of the Latin language, even among his remarkable contemporaries.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction 1: Satire 2: Epodes 3: Odes 4: Epistles 5: Horace after Horace Further reading Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis impressive volume provides over 1,700 biographical entries on poets writing in English from 1910 to the present day, including T. S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, and Carol Ann Duffy. Authoritative and accessible, it is a must-have for students of English and creative writing, as well as for anyone with an interest in poetry.Trade Reviewan indispensable companion. * John Sutherland, The Sunday Times {Culture} *an essential and enjoyable guide to ... the disorderly garden of English-language poetry * The Guardian *Review from previous edition The field covered by this well-researched volume is enormous ... There are intriguing poet-as-critic sections (Jon Stallworthy, for example, writing about Rupert Brooke, or Seamus Heaney on Robert Lowell - the American poet - an analysis which is wonderfully revealing). * Richard Edmonds, The Birmingham Post *Ian Hamilton, the editor, succeeds, on the whole triumphantly, in his declared aim of providing a map of modern poetry in English ... a collection which contains many excellent essays ... This volume serves a very good purpose. * Stephen Spender, The Times *marvellously peopled Companion ... it's the massive rehearsal here of the peculiarities of poetry in English which holds out almost endless delightful knowledge to all poetry readers * Valentine Cunningham, The Observer *This is a provocative Companion ... essential for anyone interested in coming to terms with modern poetry ... it does entertain pugnaciously as well as inform * Alan Bold, The Herald *a wonderful litany of bizarre names, all belonging to poets, all included in Ian Hamilton's massive Companion To Twentieth Century Poetry. The Companion is a book bulging with spleen and fascinating titbits. * Val Hennessy, The Daily Mail *The strength of this Companion lies in its comprehensiveness: 1,500 poets from all five continents ... this is a fine and useful compendium. * William Scammell, Independent on Sunday *The book is compact, legible and excellent value. * Grey Gowrie, Daily Telegraph *a Herculean achievement with lively pen portraits on 1,500 poets plus entries on movements, concepts and critical terms ... This book should quickly establish itself as an essential work of reference. * Richard Foster, Yorkshire Evening Post *It holds out endless delightful knowledge to all poetry readers. * The Observer *at once a reference book and a sort of map of critical opinion regarding the current verse trade ... It should prove useful to public libraries * Literary Review *hard to put down - chock-full of pleasures * Angus Calder, Scotland on Sunday *The quality of the writing is, overall, very high, the range impressive, the approach as lively as the topic deserves. It is a handsome conversation piece, and should keep the passionate battles of the poetry world supplied with useful ammunition. * Times Literary Supplement *very admirable and inclusive Oxford Companion to Twentieth-Century Poetry * Times Literary Supplement *The latest Oxford Companion is a magnificent snug chunk of a book and a browser's delight ... this ... blissfully exciting volume is likely to send poetry readers scurrying from one entry to another and up to the limit of their library tickets the next time they look at the poetry shelves. * David Buckley, Yorkshire Post *a browser's delight ... blissfully exciting volume * David Buckley, Yorkshire Post *As to the actual execution of the Companion it could hardly, given its premisses, be bettered. In particular, its coverage it exemplary. * Hilary Corke, The Spectator *a welcome, extensive ... treat ... there's a mass of information about poets from America to Zimbabwe, as well as critical assessments and biographies of over 1500 writers * Colin Dyter, Evening Sentinel *an essential reference book for poetry * Cork Examiner *Hamilton's wide coverage comes to an American reader as a revelation ... As a proclamation of the internationalisation of poetry in English, Hamilton's Companion generously inclusive, will be seen in the future, I am certain, as a significant landmark of literary change. * London Review of Books *frequently useful and interesting ... a work that is valuable - mainly for the general reader - in its catholocity of taste and in the verve of the writing it includes * Times Higher Education Supplement *Comprehensive, alphabetically arranged reference work to some 1,500 poets as well as magazines, movements, concepts and critical terms, from 1900 to today. It includes authoritative, opinionated contributions from distinguished poets/critics. * Anne Boston, Country Living *All the things one expects from an Oxford Companion - authority, comprehensiveness, judicious organisation and so forth - are here in abundance, and on top of that you get an introduction which immediately vanquishes the notion that the book may turn out to be unduly bland in tone, This Oxford Companion is a vast undertaking and an invaluable reference work ... Riveting details, areas of provocation, astute evaluations, even the odd deficiency or eccentricity - all these will help to keep the reader of Ian Hamilton's Twentieth-Century Poetry engrossed throughout. * Patricia Craig, The Honest Ulsterman *skilfully edited ... and with expert contributions, accurate in details and many of rare appreciation and sensitive understanding * Revd Dr Gordon S. Wakefield, The Expository Times *This is an excellent reference book which no library, public or academic, large or small, should be without. Well written and intelligently put together it should have a long and useful life and definitely fills a gap in the current range of reference material on 20th-century poetry in English. There is nothing else in the field quite as comprehensive, as readable, as successful a combination of fact and analysis ... Its scope is wide ranging and fairly exhaustive ... He is to be congratulated, for despite the omissions and the quirky inclusions, he has done an excellent job. He is well qualified for an undertaking of this size and complexity ... For poets the Companion will be indispensable, for libraries invaluable, to the casual browser informative and to all endlessly fascinating. * The Year in Reference *Table of ContentsIntroduction to the Second Edition ; Introduction to the First Edition ; Selection of Anthologies ; Key to Contributors ; Companion to Modern Poetry ; Groups and Movements ; List of Prizes and Prizewinners ; General Web Links

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Oxford Guide to Arthurian Literature and Legend is both a critical history of the Arthurian tradition and a reference guide to Arthurian works, names, and symbols. It offers a comprehensive survey of the legends in all of their manifestations, from their origins in medieval literature to their adaptation in modern literature, arts, film, and popular culture. Not only does it analyse familiar Arthurian characters and themes, it also demonstrates the tremendous continuity of the legends by examining the ways that they have been reinterpreted over the years. For instance, the motif of the abduction of Guinevere can be traced from Chrétien de Troyes''s Lancelot or the Knight of the Cart and the vulgate cycle of French romances in the 13th century, to Malory''s retelling of the story in the Morte d''Arthur, through various modern adaptations like those in T. H. White''s The Once and Future King and the contemporary film First Knight. This indispensable reference guide contains seven essTable of ContentsIntroduction ; Bibliography of Basic Resources for the Study of the Arthurian Legends ; 1. Early Accounts of Arthur, Chronicles, and Historical Literature ; 2. The Romance Tradition ; 3. Malory, his Influence, and the Continuing Romance Tradition ; 4. The Holy Grail ; 5. Gawain ; 6. Merlin ; 7. Tristan and Isolt ; Afterword ; Arthurian People, Places, and Things ; Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisAlexander Pope (1688-1744) is regarded as the most important poet of the early eighteenth century. An invalid from infancy, Pope devoted his energies towards literature and achieved remarkable success with his first published work at the age of 21. A succession of brilliant poems followed, including An Essay on Criticism (1711), Windsor Forest (1713), and his masterpiece The Rape of the Lock (1712). A second period of great poetry was begun in 1728 with the appearance of the first Dunciad. All these works, which exhibit Pope''s astonishing human insight, his wide sympathies, and powers of social observation (displayed to greatest effect in his talent for satire), feature in this selection. In his introduction - an eloquent defence of Pope''s poetic practice - Pat Rogers argues that we must abandon our Romantic conception of poetry as a record of fleeting and subjective states if we are to understand Pope fully. Instead, we must see him as an accomplished practitioner of the poetry of

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis rich selection - made by the author - exhibits those qualities in poem after poem, reflecting, moreover, an exciting experimentation with rhythm and language and a movement toward an embrace beyond the personal.Trade ReviewHer best work exhibits a lyrical acuity which is both purifying and redemptive. She sees description as a means to catharsis, and the end result is impossible to forget... Her poetry is remarkable for its candour, its eroticism, and its power to move -- David LeavittOlds remains too little-known in the UK...readers new to her will be astounded -- Kate Clanchy * Independent *If any reading is 'essential', this is it -- Carol RumensSharon Olds explores her own experience with an intransigent honesty and fiery dignity. The reader might flinch at the intimacy, but Olds strikes straight out for the truth -- Rachel Campbell-Johnston * The Times *The attention to line, the superbly focused detail, the way her autobiographical detail strikes, shines, deepens, spreads: this, surely is the sound the confessional hordes have been trying to utter since Lowell, the right road that is missed so easily -- Glyn Maxwell

Read more less

Book SynopsisRetaining the first edition's literal and respectful translations of Rimbaud's complex and nontraditional verse - after correcting errors and reordering poems - this edition also contains a foreword that considers the heritage of the first edition and adds a bibliography that acknowledges relevant books.Trade Review"This handsome edition, which makes France's most remarkable poet readily available in the U.S., may well be a literary landmark comparable to Baudelaire's introduction of Edgar Allan Poe in France a century earlier." - Anna Balakian, New York Times Book Review"

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisA retelling of the tale of Jason and the Golden Fleece, one of the oldest extant Greek myth.Table of Contents LIST OF MAPS PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction THE ARGONAUTIKA Commentary ABBREVIATIONS SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY GLOSSARY MAPS INDEX

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe appearance of Philip Larkin''s second prose collection - reviews and critical assessments of writers and writing; pieces on jazz, mostly uncollected; some long, revealing and often highly entertaining interviews given on various occasions - was a considerable literary event. Stamped by wit, originality and intelligence, it was vintage Larkin throughout:''Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.''''I see life more as an affair of solitude diversified by company than as an affair of company diversified by solitude.''Q. ''How did you arrive upon the image of a toad for work or labour?''A. ''Sheer genius.''

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe enormous popular appeal of Philip Larkin''s poetry has long been established; but oddly little is known to his admiring public about the personality behind the work.The Selected Letters will change this, throwing light on a more complex, and in many ways more remarkable, figure than most readers will be expecting. Whether addressing his literary friends - who included Barbara Pym, Kingsley Amis and John Betjeman - or those less prominently placed, Larkin shows himself to have been one of the frankest and most generously entertaining letter-writers of the century.Confessions, jokes, advice, scurrilities, pronouncements on literature and jazz, impromptu verses published here for the first time, gossip and wisdom abound in these pages. They give an astonishing view of a great poet''s progress from brash youth to rueful age, and, in complementing the poems, provide a biographical document that no serious reader can afford to ignore.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBorn on the Orkney island of Wyre in 1887, Edwin Muir settled in various parts of Europe during the first half of the twentieth century - from Glasgow, to Austria and Czechoslovakia throughout to 1920s, 1930s and again after the war. Muir''s poetry bears oblique witness to the most traumatic years and events of this century, and is haunted by the symbolic ''fable'' which he longed to find beneath the surface ''story'' of mere events, as he came to terms with his own nature amidst the terror and confusion of the European maelstrom. As Seamus Heaney has written: ''Muir''s poetic strength revealed itself in being able to co-ordinate the nightmare of history with that place in himself where he had trembled with anticipation . . . His simultaneous at-homeness and abroadness is exemplary.''

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn this series, a contemporary poet selects and introduces a poet of the past.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHugo Williams''s new collection summons the poet''s past selves in order of appearance, as in an autobiography, showing in poems as clear as rock pools that the plain truth is only as plain as the props and make-up needed to stage it. Childhood and school time offer up the amateur theatricals of themselves, in poems of vertiginous retrospect; other poems itemize the professional selves of the poet''s actor-father Hugh Williams (by now as familiar and frequently depicted as Cezanne''s mountain), while the narrator - ''waiting to step into my father''s shoes as myself'' - teases out the paradoxes of identity and inheritance After this searching portraiture of the poet''s parents, the chronology opens onto the broad secular thoroughfares of adulthood, including a limpid arrangement of pillow poems which tell the same erotic bedtime story in twelve different ways. Other poems strike out decisively along roads not taken: meticulous misremembering, sinister and fecklessly

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe greatest of the late medieval Scottish makars, Robert Henryson wrote in Lowland Scots, a distinctive northern version of English. He was profoundly influenced by Chaucer''s vision of the frailty and pathos of human life. His greatest poem, and one of the rhetorical masterpieces of the literature of these islands, is the narrative Testament of Cresseid, set in the aftermath of the Trojan War, which completes the story of Chaucer''s Troilus and Criseyde, offering a grim and tragic account of its faithless heroine''s rejection by her lover Diomede, and her decline into prostitution and leprosy. A work of unreconciled Shakespearean intensity, the Testament has been translated by Seamus Heaney into a confident and yet faithful modern English idiom which honours the poem''s unique blend of detachment and compassion.A master of narrative, Henryson was also a comic master of the verse fable; his burlesques of human weakness in the guise of animal wisd

Read more less

Book SynopsisEdited by Alan Jenkins, this authoritative Collected Poems contains all of the poetry that Ian Hamilton chose to publish, together with a small number of uncollected and unpublished poems; it also supplies an illuminating introduction, and succinctly helpful apparatus. The result is an edition whose thoroughness and tact are themselves a moving tribute, restoring to view one of the most distinctive bodies of work in twentieth-century English poetry.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPhilip Larkin: A Writer''s Life won the Whitbread Award for Biography in 1993 and was championed as ''an exemplary biography of its kind'' (The Times). With a new introduction written by the author, this edition offers an engrossing portrait of one of the twentieth century''s most popular, and most private, poets. ''There will be other lives of Larkin, but Motion''s, like Forster''s of Dickens, will always have a special place.'' John Carey, Sunday Times''Larkin lived a quietly noble and exemplary version of the writer''s life; Motion - affectionate but undeceived about the man''s frailties, a diligent researcher and a deft reader of poetry - has written an equally exemplary ''Life'' of him.'' Peter Conrad, Observer''Honest but not prurient, critical but also compassionate, Motion''s book could not be bettered.'' Alan Bennett, London Review of Books

Read more less

Book SynopsisHe published his poems in many forms, including - again his own invention - New Numbers, a constantly changing collage, which appears here in its final form. since Pope's' (New York Review of Books) - and it illustrates Logue's belief in the power of poetry as a social force - dissident, sensual and humorous.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe illuminating letters of Elizabeth Hardwick and Robert Lowell, including the dramatic breakup of their 21-year marriage and their extraordinary reconciliation.

Read more less

Book SynopsisBeckett's first literary landmark' (St Petersburg Times) is a wonderfully savoury introduction to the Nobel Prize-winning author. Written in 1932, when the twenty-six-year-old Beckett was struggling to make ends meet, the novel offers a rare and revealing portrait of the artist as a young man. When submitted to several publishers, all of them found it too literary, too scandalous or too risky; it was only published posthumously in 1992. As the story begins, Belacqua a young version of Molloy, whose love is divided between two women, Smeraldina-Rima and the little Alba wrestles with his lusts and learning across vocabularies and continents, before a final relapse into Dublin' (New Yorker). Youthfully exuberant and Joycean in tone, Dream is a work of extraordinary virtuosity.

Read more less

Book SynopsisYork Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe influence of Aldeburgh and the Suffolk Coast on the poet behind 'Peter Grimes'.Trade ReviewIt is fascinating to rediscover Crabbe - then and now. Beautifully researched, A Time and a Place takes us into the intimacy of Crabbe's life as he lived it and re-establishes him into the everyday life of all of us who love, live and work here. A triumph! Maggi Hambling, artist An insightful account of the life and psyche of George Crabbe, whose poetry inspired Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes and whose career was defined by a love-hate relationship with Aldeburgh. Anyone interested in the history of the town, or Suffolk generally, will find it fascinating. Blake Morrison, Poet, Novelist and Professor of Creative Writing at Goldsmiths University Frances Gibb has vividly rolled back the centuries in the Suffolk landscape, bring­ing George Crabbe to life in the same hard streets, mud banks and sea slime that so inspired England's great pioneer poet of the poor. Peter Stothard, author of Alexandria and former editor of the Times Literary Supplement For at its heart A Time and a Place is an exercise in psychogeography, a study of Crabbe's poems that not only tethers them to the place in which they were written but emphasises the centrality of the location to their achievement. DJ Taylor, The Times, May 2022 A Time and a Place benefits greatly from Gibb's knowledge of and feeling for Aldeburgh, to which her family first came in the 1960s...Gibb's book evokes both the literal and psychological landscapes of the poet's life and work, notably those places of 'moral reckoning' to which his characters are brought...Gibb recognises that Britten has 'the bigger name, the louder voice', but her book is a useful reminder that it was Crabbe who had first claim on Aldeburgh, and that his poems provide an unsettling and enduring portrait of a time and a place and its people. Peter Parker, The Spectator, June 2022 Place is at the heart of the book, as it is central to Crabbe's poetry, and the author offers a perceptive account of his relationship to a region that both attracted him and repelled him...One is left with the impression of a complex man: a canny and sometimes ruthless operator, but someone who was also courteous, engaging and popular...her lucid, sympathetic and well-orchestrated account of Crabbe's life, which keeps looping back to Suffolk as his vital source of inspiration, will give her readers many reasons to seek him out for themselves. Susan Owens, Literary Review, Issue 510, August 2022Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Chronology Introduction A Local Habitation and a Name 1. George Crabbe's Aldeburgh California: Crabbe recalled Aldeburgh: A wild amphibious race Crabbes in East Anglia: Too obscure to possess a history Aldeburgh: That boy must be a fool Wickhambrook and Woodbridge: La! Here's our new 'prentice! Aldeburgh: The Leech Pond 2. Growing to Manhood: Love, London and Literary Success Parham: A young lady that would just suit you London: I have parted with my money, sold my wardrobe London: The hand that rescued him Aldeburgh revisited: A prophet is not without honour . 3. Domesticity and Botanising: Crabbe's Middle Years Belvoir and Stathern: Th e very happiest years in his life Parham and Glemham: A family walk through the green lanes Rendham: The final Suffolk years 4. Religion and Politics Crabbe and religion: Without a little Latin, we should have made nothing of you Crabbe and opium: His long and generally healthy life Crabbe and politics: We can do no good, or we would be among them 5. Character and Creation Aldeburgh: I hear those voices that will not be drowned Aldeburgh: Grimes on the beach Aldeburgh: Untouched by pity, unstung by remorse Crabbe and writing: What I thought I could best describe, that I have attempted Leaving Suffolk: The seat of joy, the source of pain 6. Endings and Beginnings Bath and London: I am something of a novelty Crabbe and women: Oh! For some Made-on-purpose-Creature Trowbridge: A few Sundays more Postscript Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMark Akenside (1721-1770) was a medical doctor and literary man whose influence on the history of ideas was profound. The author recognises that there is a need to explore, re-evaluate and recognise the importance of Mark Akenside''s contribution to cultural history, in his own time and from a current perspective. Born the son of a butcher in Newcastle Upon Tyne in 1721 Mark Akenside was awarded a degree in medicine from Edinburgh and Leyden Universities. He settled in London in 1743 where he was successful both as a doctor and in medical research. Above all, he was the author of The Pleasures of Imagination 1744, an epic length poem in blank verse which broke many conventions of the time, exploring ideas about human perception and the natural world. Akenside had a European reputation and became a national celebrity. He was a major influence on first- and second-generaTable of ContentsForeword Preface Introduction Chapter One: Newcastle Scholar Chapter Two: A Radical Student and Satirist Chapter Three: Akenside the Lover and Medical Man Chapter Four: A Prometheus Unbound Chapter Five: Interlude I: A Collection of Odes Chapter Six: Towards Relativity and Subjectivity Chapter Seven: Musing and Conversations Chapter Eight: Poetic Colour Chapter Nine: Interlude II: The Inscriptions Chapter Ten: A Valediction and Conclusion Select Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTable of ContentsPrefaceThe Three RimbaudsTranslator’s Notes

Read more less

Book Synopsis''Broad in scope, generous in spirit and wittily accompanied by Risbridger''s commentary''Sarah Perry, author of The Essex SerpentSet Me On Fire is an anthology for a new moment in poetry: a collection of fresh, vibrant voices from poets all over the globe, both living and dead. With an intuitive, accessible, feelings-first format, these are poems for the moments when you really need to know that someone else has been there too.These are poems about eating and kissing and having too many feelings, about being outside and inside and loving someone so much you think you might die. They are about break-ups and getting back together and oh-god-it''s-complicated-don''t-ask-me moments. They are about wanting and waiting and having, about grieving and life after death and the end of the world. They are, in other words, about being alive.Trade ReviewI credit Ella Risbridger with curing me of a deep and lasting suspicion of poetry in general, and contemporary poetry in particular. Readers of a similar disposition should be warned that this collection – broad in scope, generous in spirit and wittily accompanied by Risbridger's commentary – will likely offer a similar cure, while those already in love with the form have new and startling pleasures in store. * Sarah Perry, author of 'The Essex Serpent' *A new anthology with fortifying intentions . . . offered as an antidote to those who recoil from poetry. To my relief, it is only loosely organised by feelings and brims with familiar and unfamiliar voices: a lucky dip of the best sort. * The Guardian *I found her enthusiastic explanations and recommendations as fun and refreshing as party-popped fizz. If I wanted to introduce young people to poetry I'd give them this book, which reinforced my conviction that helpful notes offer poetry as a generous gift rather than leaving it on a chilly pedestal. * Daily Mail *A gorgeous anthology, cleverly curated to convert the cynics, delight the poetically inclined and soothe everyone in between. * Lauren Bravo, author of 'What Would the Spice Girls Do?' *Whatever your mood – be it hunger, anger or an end of the world kind of despair, Ella has a poem to soothe you. From the greats like Philip Larkin and Sylvia Plath to obscure poets, new poets and all shades of poets in between, to poems about peanut butter and mix-tape, this anthology is as satisfying as a box of Quality Street * Red *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn his compelling new book Ian Smith addresses the pernicious influence of systemic whiteness on our interpretation of Shakespeare's plays. Unmissable reading for students and scholars of drama, cultural and early modern studies.Trade Review'Ian Smith's Black Shakespeare begins by asserting that lingering contemporary resistance to the evidence that people in the early modern world believed that race was real and that it mattered participates in a larger denial of the kinds of work that race performs in our own time. In a series of subtle and revelatory readings-I am thinking particularly of the dazzling chapter on Hamlet-Smith implicitly argues that learning to recognize race's subtle and extensive operations in Shakespeare can be an important first step toward our own achievement of what he calls 'racial literacy'. To see and to know, Smith believes, is to begin to be able to recognize and resist white supremacy's purchase in our field and in the culture that shapes it. Persuasively argued and deeply ethically engaged throughout, Black Shakespeare is the work of a mature scholar who believes that Shakespeare matters and who calls on us both to embrace and to question the conditions under which he has achieved his place in our world.' Joyce MacDonald, University of Kentucky'Ian Smith delivers an indisputable, learned and earth- shattering intervention into our habits and practices of reading the works of William Shakespeare. If, Smith is right that Shakespeare's plays are read, taught and interpreted on stage overwhelmingly through the lens of whiteness, then racial illiteracy informs our relationship with the Bard. To read Shakespeare rigorously, thoroughly and with intention, is to acknowledge what Smith calls our 'racial blindspots'. Smith's novel readings of Shakespeare's tragedies are unflinching as he asks us to confront what is actually before our eyes. Black Shakespeare is essential reading for all those studying, teaching and performing these works.' Farah Karim Cooper, Shakespeare's Globe and King's College London'In Black Shakespeare, Ian Smith trenchantly demonstrates how white epistemology and systemic whiteness cause readers to sanitize, distort, and elide key parts of Shakespeare's texts. Theoretically and historically grounded, Black Shakespeare also deploys dazzling acts of close reading to show exactly what a white reading practice misses or gets wrong. Throughout, Smith makes the stakes of his argument clear: readers must acquire an expanded racial literacy both to read Shakespeare well and also to become citizens fit for the demands of a democratic polity.' Jean E. Howard, Columbia University'Black Shakespeare is an important and timely study of how race affects reading and interpretation. Smith not only illuminates various functions of whiteness within Shakespeare's plays, but also demonstrates that whiteness has shaped the idea of Shakespeare in Shakespeare Studies. Beyond the brilliant insights that it offers about Shakespeare, Black Shakespeare requires literary scholars to reckon with how white supremacy is perpetuated through interpretive practices.' Dennis Britton, The University of British Columbia'Black Shakespeare is revelatory, stunning, and arresting! Crafting a disorienting tour de force, Ian Smith has written an essential book for all readers of Shakespeare that demonstrates not only how we have misread the plays, but also how we might rectify readings in the future. A requisite read!' Ayanna Thompson, Arizona State University'In an argument that is both elegant and forceful, Smith makes the obvious but heretofore underappreciated point that the act of 'reading historically' is itself saturated with a racial history that must be a subject of analysis. For putting this argument on the table, and for its convincing reappraisal of some of Shakespeare's best-known plays, Smith's study is destined to be a landmark in a field that continues to pose powerful, searching questions in the humanities.' Michael Witmore, Folger Shakespeare LibraryTable of ContentsIntroduction. Toward racial literacy; 1. The racialized reader; 2. Racial blind spots: Misreading bodies, misreading texts; 3. Antonio's 'Fair Flesh' and the property of whiteness; 4. Hamlet: Playing in the dark; 5. We are Othello; Epilogue. Forms of whiteness.

Read more less