The Male Image: Representations of Masculinity in Postwar Poetry

by Ian Gregson (Editor)

Overview

This book discusses how masculinity is represented by women poets and gay poets - but, most of all, how it is represented by straight male poets. It shows how Robert Lowell and John Berryman both identify a gender malaise in themselves which they struggle with throughout their careers, and how Derek Walcott displays a profound gender insecurity in relation to the colonial experience. It discusses the impact on Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney of their belief in a transcendent feminine principle, and how C.K. Williams and Paul Muldoon display the impact of feminism on male poets who are young enough to have encountered it at a formative period.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781349276615
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan UK
Publication date:	01/01/1999
Edition description:	1st ed. 1999
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

IAN GREGSON was born in Manchester and educated at Oxford and Hull and since 1997 has been Lecturer in English, University of Wales, Bangor. He is an award-winning poet and has published poems and reviews in the Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books, Poetry Review, and the Los Angeles Times Book Review. His Contemporary Poetry and Postmodernism: Dialogue and Estrangement was published by Macmillan in 1996.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Men and Mermaids: Robert Lowell's Martial Masculinity and Beyond Berryman and Buried Women Ted Hughes and the Goddess of Complete Being Able Seaman and the Penile Canon: Derek Walcott's Adamic Utterance Sons of Mother Ireland: Seamus Heaney and Paul Muldoon 'Insofar As They Are Embodiments of the Patriarchal Idea': Women Representing Men The Politics of Camp: Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery Creeps and Bastards: C.K. Williams as Voyeur

Editorial Reviews

Himself a poet, Gregson (English, U. of Wales-Bangor) explores how English poetry of past few decades portray the experiences of the male body, of masculine identity, and links between the two. He discusses conventional expectations about male power, how it is acquired and maintained, and how it is a source of both prestige and vulnerability. He considers some women and gay writers, but mostly straight (as far as he knows) men, among them Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Seamus Heaney, and Paul Muldoon. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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