Contemporary Political Poetry in Britain and Ireland

Edited by Uwe Klawitter & Claus-Ulrich Viol.

The political poetry produced since the 1980ies in Britain and Ireland is marked by a rich diversity of commitments and concerns. Twelve essays analyze how far all these different articulations of the political share common poetic patterns and modes of address. - 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 the poet. 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. - Contents: Uwe Klawitter/Claus-Ulrich Viol: Introduction. Political Poetry as a Space for Conflict and Negotiation. - Christian Schmitt-Kilb: "Poetry's a Line of Defence". Ecopoetry and Politics in the 21st Century. - Anette Pankratz: "Rat-Catchers" or What? British Poets Laureate in the 20 th and 21 st Centuries. - Scott Brewster: The Other Side. Proximity, Poetry and the Northern Irish Peace Process. - Peter Robinson: Conflicts in Form. The Politics of Roy Fisher's City. - Cecile Marshall: Political and Poetic Defiance in Tony Harrison. - Michael Szczekalla: Glyn Maxwell. The Poet as a Citizen. - Uwe Klawitter: 'Doing Gender'. Poetic Configurations of Femininity and Masculinity. - Gerold Sedlmayr: "I didn't graduate / I immigrate". West Indian British Poets and the Politics of Ethnicity. - Cornelia Grabner: Poetic Licence and Direct Address. Political Performance Poetry in Britain. - Kathy-Ann Tan: London Calling. The Poetics of Disruption and Social Resistance in the Works of Sean Bonney and Stephen Mooney. - Andy Croft in conversation with Uwe Klawitter/Claus-Ulrich Viol: "Dreadfully Old-Fashioned". On Tradition and Commitment in Political Poetry. - 274 Seiten mit vier Abb., broschiert (anglistik & englischunterricht; Vol. 77/Universitätsverlag Winter 2013)