Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology

Dennis Wilson Wise's "Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology" argues that a literary movement can exist even if it goes unnoticed. The anthology collects over fifty speculative poets from across North America and Europe, including established names and representative texts from cultural movements. It includes a critical introduction and extensive footnotes to aid readers in understanding the Modern Revival.

Format: Hardback
Length: 502 pages
Publication date: 15 December 2023
Publisher: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press

If a literary movement arises but no one notices, is it still a movement? In Speculative Poetry and the Modern Alliterative Revival: A Critical Anthology, Dennis Wilson Wise argues that the answer is "yes." Over the last ten decades, poets working in fantasy, science fiction, and horror have collectively brought forth a revival in alliterative poetics akin to what once happened in the mid-fourteenth century. Altogether, this anthology collects for the first time over fifty speculative poets—several of whom are previously unpublished—from across North America and Europe. Alongside such established names as C. S. Lewis, Patrick Rothfuss, Edwin Morgan, Poul Anderson, Jo Walton, P. K. Page, and W. H. Auden, this anthology includes representative texts from cultural movements such as contemporary neo-Paganism and the Society for Creative Anachronism. A lengthy critical introduction by the editor—written accessibly for a general audience—explains and contextualizes the Modern Revival for critics and readers alike, and extensive footnotes offer aids to anyone new to medieval history or Norse mythology. Overall, this indispensable anthology—the first major academic book to focus on speculative poetry—establishes where the medieval meets the modern in the hitherto unrecognized Modern Alliterative Revival.

Weight: 790g
Dimension: 235 x 160 x 36 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781683933298