Introduction. Political poetry as a space for conflict and negotiation / Uwe Klawitter, Claus-Ulrich Viol -- "Poetry's a line of defence." Ecopoetry and politics in the 21st century / Christian Schmitt-Kilb -- "Rat-catchers" or What? British poet laureate in the 20th and 21st centuries / Anette Pankratz -- The other side. Proximity, poetry and the Northern Irish peace process / Scott Brewster -- Conflicts in form. The politics of Roy Fisher's City / Peter Robinson -- Political and poetic defiance in Tony Harrison / Cécile Marshall -- Glyn Maxwell. The poet as citizen / Michael Szczekalla -- 'Doing gender'. Poetic configurations of femininity and masculinity / Uwe Klawitter -- "I didn't graduate/I immigrate". West Indian British poets and the politics of ethnicity / Gerold Sedlmayr -- Poetic licence and direct address. Political performance poetry in Britain / Cornelia Gräbner -- London calling. The poetics of disruption and social resistance in the works of Sean Bonney and Stephen Mooney / Kathy-Ann Tan -- "Dreadfully old-fashioned". On tradition and commitment in political poetry / Andy Croft in conversation with Uwe Klawitter, Claus-Ulrich Viol -- Contributors' addresses.
Summary:
The political poetry produced over the last three decades in Britain and Ireland is marked by a rich diversity of commitments and concerns, a striving for the effective matching of poetic strategy and expressive purpose. The poets considered in this collection of essays differ widely in the intensity of their engagement and their ideological orientation. Their poems address social injustice, civil liberties, ethnic conflict and identity, sexual politics, green issues and urban development but turn also to the politics of aesthetics and the political role of poetry and poet as such. One of the main objectives of this volume is to sound out in how far all these different articulations of the political share common poetic patterns and modes of address or seek to achieve their political effects by completely different, even contrary, ways of discursive approach. Another objective is to provide fresh answers to the vexed question of what the benefits and limitations of a poetic approach to politics may be. -- Publisher website.
Series:
Anglistik und Englischunterricht, 0344-8266 ; Band 77
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.