Description
Book SynopsisWomen’s Experimental Poetry in Britain 1970–2010: Body, Time and Locale presents the history and current state of a critically neglected, significant body of contemporary writing and places it within the wider social and political contexts of the period. Ranging from Geraldine Monk’s ventriloquizing of the Pendle witches to Denise Riley’s fiercely self-critical lyric poems, from the multi-media experiments of Maggie O’Sullivan to the globally aware, politicised sequences of Andrea Brady and Jennifer Cooke, David Kennedy and Christine Kennedy theorise women’s alternative poetries in terms of Julia Kristeva’s idea of ‘women’s time’ and in terms of the female poetic voice constantly negotiating with dominant systems of representation. They also offer a much-needed re-theorising of the value of avant garde practices.
Trade ReviewReviewsA much-needed intervention in the area of modern poetry written by women in Britain.
Times Literary Supplement'... this wonderful study is itself a fine manifestation of experimental and challenging discourse. I can't think of a better recommendation.'
Stride Magazine'... badger your library to get hold of a copy; I promise that you will not regret reading this remarkably clear account of what has needed to be pulled together for far too long.'
Tears in the Fence'In its forceful and intelligent guidance to – and advocacy of - some of the strongest poetry written in this country over the last half a century the book does nothing but good.'
Tears on the Fence, Issue 60
'What Kennedy and Kennedy have achieved here is a guide to an important yet neglected area of poetry and poetics. Any library intent on developing and maintaining a serious poetry collection needs to purchase this book and follow up the work of the poets discussed within. This book could revolutionise your library’s poetry collection.'
Languages and literature Reference Reviews, Volume 28, Number 4
Reviews'Through this important book length study, Kennedy and Kennedy extend and update a valuable line of critical reading of women’s experimental poetry represented by Perloff, Linda Kinnahan and Clair Wills in the 1990s, and more recently by many of the critics who contributed to the Salt Companion to Maggie O’Sullivan.'
Eltringham D. , Jenkins H. & Sheppard V.,
Journal of British and Irish Innovative PoetryTable of Contents
- Contexts
- Chapter 1: Increasing Presence.
- Chapter 2: Experimental Poetry: Terms of Engagement.
- Chapter 3: Critical Histories.
- Poetries
- Chapter 4: Veronica Forrest-Thomson and Wendy Mulford: Lyric Transformations.
- Chapter 5: Geraldine Monk: Supernatural Soundscapes and Interregnum.
- Chapter 6: Denise Riley: Corporeal and Desiring Spaces.
- Chapter 7: Maggie O’Sullivan: ‘Declensions of the non’.
- Chapter 8: Harriet Tarlo, Elizabeth Bletsoe, and Helen MacDonald: ‘Being Outside’.
- Chapter 9: Caroline Bergvall, Elizabeth James Frances Presley and Redell Olsen: Virtual Spaces.
- Chapter 10: Younger Women Poets 1: Anna Mendelssohn, Emily Critchley and Sophie Robinson.
- Chapter 11: Younger Women Poets 2: Andrea Brady, Marianne Morris and Jennifer Cooke.
- Bibliography
