Living in history : poetry in Britain, 1945-1979 / Luke Roberts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roberts, Luke (College teacher), author.

Series:

Edinburgh critical studies in avant-garde writing.

Edinburgh critical studies in avant-garde writing

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

English poetry.

Political poetry, English--History and criticism.

Political poetry, English.

Radicalism in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (vii, 280 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2024.

Summary:

Tracking the ambivalence between poetic ambition and political commitment, and how one sometimes interferes with the other, Luke Roberts troubles the exclusions of 'British Poetry' as a category and tests the claims made on behalf avant-garde and experimental poetics against the historical record. Bringing together both major and neglected authorships and offering extended close readings, fresh archival research and new contextual evidence, 'Living in History' is an ambitious and exciting intervention in the field.

Contents:

Introduction : Living in History

Possessing the Landscape : Kamau Brathwaite in England, 1950–1955

Lovely, Flaring Destruction : J. H. Prynne, Charles Olson, Edward Dorn

The Avant-Garde of Their Own People : Poetry and Exile, 1959–1975

Driven Out of the Town : Homosexuality and The British Poetry Revival

Living in Feminism : Denise Riley and Wendy Mulford

Yout Rebels : Refusal and Self-Defence, 1970–1979

Grave Police Music : Anti-Carceral Poetics

Fear of Retribution : Anna Mendelssohn

Coda : The Kind of Poetry I Want.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed on March 23, 2026).

ISBN:

1-3995-1987-5