Post-Romantic Aesthetics in Contemporary British and Irish Poetry

The book explores the legacies of Romanticism in the poetry and poetics of Eavan Boland, Gillian Clarke, John Burnside, and Kathleen Jamie, highlighting their engagement with gender, nation, and nature. It argues that the English Romantic tradition serves as a source of inspiration and critical contention for these Irish, Welsh, and Scottish poets, and relates this engagement to wider concerns with gender, nation, and nature that have shaped contemporary poetry in Britain and Ireland.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 240 pages
Publication date: 31 May 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This book explores the enduring influence of Romanticism on the poetry and poetics of Eavan Boland, Gillian Clarke, John Burnside, and Kathleen Jamie. It contends that the English Romantic tradition has been a significant source of inspiration and critical debate for these Irish, Welsh, and Scottish poets, and it connects this engagement to broader concerns with gender, nation, and nature that have shaped contemporary poetry in Britain and Ireland. The book covers a wide range of works from the 1980s to the 2010s and examines how Boland and Clarke, as women poets from the Republic of Ireland and Wales, respond to a male-dominated and Anglocentric lyric tradition and redefine Romantic notions. It also explores how Burnside and Jamie challenge, adopt, and revise Romantic aesthetics of nature and environment. The book is the first in-depth study to read Boland, Clarke, Burnside, and Jamie as post-Romantics, offering a unique perspective on contemporary poetry and literary influence. By disentangling the aesthetic and critical conceptions of Romanticism that inform their inheritance, the book develops an innovative approach to understanding contemporary poetry and literary influence.

Weight: 458g
Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032016504