The Ulster Renaissance: Poetry in Belfast 1962-1972

by Heather Clark

Overview

This is the first full-length study of the extraordinary period of intense poetic activity in Belfast known as the Ulster Renaissance—a time when young Northern Irish poets such as Seamus Heaney, Derek Mahon, Michael Longley, James Simmons, and Paul Muldoon began crafting their art, and tuning their voices through each other. Drawing extensively upon new archival material, as well as personal interviews and correspondence, The Ulster Renaissance argues that these poets' friendships and rivalries were crucial to their autonomous artistic development. The book also sheds new light on the idea of a collaborative Belfast coterie—often treated derisively by critics—and shows that the poets frequently engaged in efforts to promote a cohesive "Northern" literary community, distinct from that which existed in London and Dublin. It suggests that it was this cohesion, at turns inclusive and confining, which ultimately challenged the Belfast poets to find their individual voices.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199287314
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2006
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	8.56(w) x 5.83(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Heather Clark was educated at Harvard, Trinity College Dublin, and Lincoln College, Oxford. She currently lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is Assistant Professor of Literature at Marlboro College. She has written for Let's Go Travel Guides in Ireland, and has published many reviews in the Times Literary Supplement, Thumbscrew, and PN Review, in addition to academic articles in the Cambridge Quarterly, Eire-Ireland, and the Journal of Modern Literature. She has also published poetry and fiction in the May Anthologies.

Table of Contents

1. Beginnings2. The Belfast Group3. Renaissance4. 'Genuine Accents'5. 'MacSimmittoon'6. Separate Selves

Editorial Reviews

"At almost every turn of page, Clark's The Ulster Renaissance is a book full of useful information that might otherwise have gone scattered, full of details evocative of the period and its personalities, and full of suggestions as to connections and reconnections between poets and poems. It is the best sort of literary history because it is a book worth arguing with."—Thomas Dillon Redshaw, New Hibernia Review

"Heather Clark's study is a useful piece of work...she covers her ground with clarity, point and economy."—Peter McDonald, Times Literary Supplement

From the Publisher