Voices of the Headland: Robinson Jeffers and the Bird of Prey

by Alan J. Malnar

Overview

Voices of the Headland: Robinson Jeffers and the Bird of Prey explores the image of the raptor in the poetry of Robinson Jeffers. Emanating from the continent’s end of the American West, Jeffers’ poetic eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, and other birds of prey symbolize the compelling presence and voice of nature, a pantheistic universe of beauty and splendor, death and destruction. It is the perilous bird of prey which calls forth the very essence and life-force of Jeffers himself, winging its way through his expansive body of narrative and lyrical verse, a poetry fundamentally anti-social in its vision and primitive in its basic, instinctual surge. Voices of the Headland examines this distinctive imagery from many critical viewpoints.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781433140235
Publisher:	Peter Lang Inc., International Academic Publishers
Publication date:	05/19/2017
Series:	Studies on Themes and Motifs in Literature , #126
Pages:	170
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.86(h) x (d)

About the Author

Alan J. Malnar, Associate Professor of Humanities and Communications at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Arizona, teaches courses in writing, literature, film, and cultural studies. He has published articles in both scholarly and serial periodicals, and has received many national leadership awards from the Associated Collegiate Press for his work with Horizons newspaper. Voices of the Headland: Robinson Jeffers and the Bird of Prey is his first full-length publication.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations – Peter Quigley: Foreword – Author’s Preface – Credits and Acknowledgements – List of Abbreviations – Introduction: Solitary Hunters – Critical Viewpoints – Words of Prey – Of Flight & Sky – The Hawks of Jeffers Country – A Natural History of Hawks – The Hawk’s Dream – The King and His Hawks – Beasts in Peril – Merciless Cries – The Hawk Poet of the Tower – Bibliography – Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Voices of the Headland is a delight. Like Jeffers’ hawk and sense of nature it is grounded, informed, and it is poetic and passionate. Alan Malnar has gone deep into the world of hawks and into Jeffers’ use of this image and explores where these meet as 'words of prey.' His book is a wild read." Peter Quigley, ex-president, Robinson Jeffers Association

From the Publisher