Poetry: The Ultimate Guide

by Richard Bradford

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781350310162
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	11/17/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	932 KB

About the Author

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).
Richard Bradford is Research Professor in English at Ulster University and Visiting Professor at the University of Avignon, France. He has published over thirty widely acclaimed books, including biographies of Philip Larkin, Alan Sillitoe, Kingsley Amis, George Orwell and a controversial portraiture of Patricia Highsmith. Bradford has written for The Spectator and The Sunday Times and has appeared on the Channel 4 series In Their Own Words: British Novelists.

Table of Contents

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.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Bradford has produced a superb, accessible introduction to an impressively sweeping range of poetic techniques and historical contexts. Impressive, useful and affordable, this book will be a boon for any newcomer who wishes to grapple with the daunting challenge of interpreting historical and contemporary poetry - it will work as great revision for experienced readers too.' - Kevin De Ornellas, Ulster University, UK