Poetry The Ultimate Guide [Paperback]

Richard Bradford's new introduction to poetry begins with and answers the slippery question, 'what is poetry?'. The book provides a compact history of English poetry from the 16th century to the present day and surveys the major critical and theoretical approaches to verse. It tackles the important issues of gender, race and nationality and concludes with a lengthy account of how to recognise good poetry.
This engaging and readable book is accessible to all readers, from those who simply enjoy poetry through university first years to graduate students. Poetry: The Ultimate Guide provides the technical and critical tools you need to approach and evaluate poetry, and to articulate your own views.

Introduction.- PART 1: WHAT IS POETRY?.- The Basics.- A Definition of Poetry: The Double Pattern.- PART 2: HISTORY: THE RENAISSANCE TO POSTMODERNISM.- The Renaissance.- The Restoration and 18th Century.- Romanticism.- Victorian Poetry.- Modernism and After.- PART 3: CRITICISM AND CONTEXTS.- New Criticism.- Formalism and Structuralism.- The Role of the Reader and Poststructuralism.- New Historicism and Cultural Materialism.- Psychoanalysis.- Deconstruction.- Gender.- Nation, Race and Place.- Evaluation.- Epilogue: Why Do We Write and Read Poetry?.- Bibliography.

RICHARD BRADFORD is Professor of Literary History and Theory at the University of Ulster, UK. His publications include The Novel Now, acclaimed biographies such as First Boredom, Then Fear: The Life of Philip Larkin and The Life of a Long Distance Writer: The Authorised Biography of Alan Sillitoe, and introductory student textbooks Introducing Literary Studies and Stylistics (New Critical Idiom).
 

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