Alan Gillis – författare

The 1930s have never really been considered an epoch within Irish literature, even though the Thirties form one of the most dominant and fascinating contexts in modern British literature. This book argues that during this time Irish poets faced up to political pressures and aesthetic dilemmas which frequently overlapped with those associated with 'The Auden Generation'. In so doing, it offers a provocative intercession into Irish history. But more than this, it offers powerful arguments about the way poetry in general is interpreted and understood.In this way, Gillis seeks to redefine our understanding of a frequently neglected period and to challenge received notions of both Irish literature and poetic modernism. Irish Poetry of the 1930s gives detailed and vital readings of the major Irish poets of the decade, including original and exciting analyses of Samuel Beckett, Patrick Kavanagh, Louis MacNeice, and W. B. Yeats.

Forty chapters, written by leading scholars across the world, describe the latest thinking on modern Irish poetry. The Handbook begins with a consideration of Yeats's early work, and the legacy of the 19th century. The broadly chronological areas which follow, covering the period from the 1910s through to the 21st century, allow scope for coverage of key poetic voices in Ireland in their historical and political context. From the experimentalism of Beckett, MacGreevy, and others of the modernist generation, to the refashioning of Yeats's Ireland on the part of poets such as MacNeice, Kavanagh, and Clarke mid-century, through to the controversially titled post-1969 'Northern Renaissance' of poetry, this volume will provide extensive coverage of the key movements of the modern period.The Handbook covers the work of, among others, Paul Durcan, Thomas Kinsella, Brendan Kennelly, Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, Michael Longley, Medbh McGuckian, and Ciaran Carson. The thematic sections interspersed throughout - chapters on women's poetry, religion, translation, painting, music, stylistics - allow for comparative studies of poets north and south across the century. Central to the guiding spirit of this project is the Handbook's consideration of poetic forms, and a number of essays explore the generic diversity of poetry in Ireland, its various manipulations, reinventions and sometimes repudiations of traditional forms. The last essays in the book examine the work of a 'new' generation of poets from Ireland, concentrating on work published in the last two decades by Justin Quinn, Leontia Flynn, Sinead Morrissey, David Wheatley, Vona Groarke, and others.