Auden and the muse of history / Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gottlieb, Susannah Young-ah, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973--Criticism and interpretation.

Auden, W. H.

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

English poetry.

Literature and history.

Auden, W. H. (Wystan Hugh), 1907-1973.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

xiii, 292 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2023]

Summary:

"Concentrating on W. H. Auden's work from the late 1930s, when he seeks to understand the poet's responsibility in the face of a triumphant fascism, to the late 1950s, when he discerns an irreconcilable "divorce" between poetry and history in light of industrialized murder, this startling new study reveals the intensity of the poet's struggles with the meanings of history. Through meticulous readings, significant archival findings, and critical reflection, Susannah Young-ah Gottlieb presents a new image and understanding of Auden's achievement and reveals how his version of modernism illuminates urgent contemporary issues and theoretical paradigms: from the meaning of marriage equality to the persistence of fascism; from critical theory to psychoanalysis; from precarity to postcolonial studies. "The muse does not like being forced to choose between Agit-prop and Mallarmé," Auden writes with characteristic lucidity, and this study elucidates the probity, humor, and technical skill with which his responses to historical reality in the mid-twentieth century illuminate our world today"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

States of marriage

Poetry, prose, and a forgotten practice

"Civilization must be saved"

Interlude : the falling empire

Isotopes of love

From poem to volume

Anthropology, hell, goodbye

Coda : closing and opening thoughts.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Gottlieb, Susannah Young-ah. Auden and the muse of history.

ISBN:

9781503633155

1503633152

9781503633926

1503633926

OCLC:

1320820079