Search results for ""author alan gillis""

Alan Gillis – one of the most admired Irish poets of his generation – addresses some of the most pressing concerns of the age: how can we live at the centre of our contemporary paradox, disconnected and hyper-connected as we are? A poet of thresholds and crossings, Gillis finds his answers in the suburbs and edgelands, at the hesitation before the doorstep or the gate. The Readiness sites itself at the heart of our human contradictions, and explores their meaning. These poems form a series of bad dreams and clear visions that speak to the chaos and fragility of both self and society: the childhood innocence that persists into the resignation of adulthood; the beauty of nature in an age of environmental ruin; the terrible isolation of contemporary life – and the live-streamed, advert-laden over-wiring that springs from its digital commons. It does this with a formal confidence, a dry wit and often astonishing lyricism that marks Gillis as one of the most individual and vital poetic voices now at work.

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This is a new edition of this established guide for students studying literature for the first time. This up-to-the minute foundational guide introduces the full range of literary forms, styles, theories and critical strategies which new students need to cover. By careful use of examples it demonstrates exactly how strategies for reading texts can be put to work and all texts discussed are conveniently available in the Norton Anthology of English Literature. The successful first edition is now updated with the latest in research and teaching by the academics based at one of the UK's leading university literature departments. It features a new Students Resources section with 3 new chapters on Reading, Writing, and Reflecting and including 'how to' features such as how to avoid plagiarism, and how to prepare a bibliography. It discusses both British and American authors, while the texts discussed in the book generally appear in the Norton Anthology of English Literature. It introduces a wide range of literary forms, styles and critical strategies, essential knowledge for the beginning student of literature.

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