Women's Poetry (Edinburgh Critical Guides to Literature)

This guide examines the production and reception of poetry by a range of women writers - predominantly although not exclusively writing in English - from Sappho through Anne Bradstreet and Emily Bronte to Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland and Susan Howe. Women's Poetry offers a thoroughgoing study of key texts, poets and issues, analysing commonalities and differences across a diverse range of writers, periods, and forms. The book is alert, throughout, to the diversity of women's poetry. Close readings of selected texts are combined with a discussion of key theories and critical practices, and students are encouraged to think about women's poetry in the light of debates about race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and regional and national identity. The book opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction which outlines various approaches to reading women's poetry. Five chapters follow and a Conclusion and appendix of useful resources close the book. Key Features\*Wide-ranging and flexible in scope, giving detailed consideration to widely-taught poets, texts, periods and issues. \*Introduces themes, questions and perspectives applicable to a more heterogeneous and less familiar range of writers.\*Encourages informed discussion of the difficulties of defining a discrete genre of 'women's poetry'. \*Offers valuable introductory and supplementary guidance for students. This guide examines the production and reception of poetry by a range of women writers - predominantly although not exclusively writing in English - from Sappho through Anne Bradstreet and Emily Bronte to Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland and Susan Howe.

Women's Poetry offers a thoroughgoing thematic study of key texts, poets and issues, analysing commonalities and differences across diverse writers, periods, and forms. The book is alert, throughout, to the diversity of women's poetry. Close readings of selected texts are combined with a discussion of key theories and critical practices, and students are encouraged to think about women's poetry in the light of debates about race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and regional and national identity. The book opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction which outlines various approaches to reading women's poetry. Seven chapters follow, and a Conclusion and section of useful resources close the book.

Key Features

* Wide-ranging and flexible in scope, giving detailed consideration to widely-taught poets, texts, periods and issues
* Introduces themes, questions and perspectives applicable to the work of other less familiar writers
* Encourages informed discussion of the difficulties of defining a discrete genre of 'women's poetry'
* Offers valuable introductory and supplementary guidance for students
* Discusses in detail poems by Margaret Cavendish, Anne Bradstreet, Sara Coleridge, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Edith Sitwell, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ruth Fainlight, Grace Nicholls, Eavan Boland, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy. GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748623068);This guide examines the production and reception of poetry by a range of women writers - predominantly although not exclusively writing in English - from Sappho through Anne Bradstreet and Emily Bronte to Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland and Susan Howe.Women's Poetry offers a thoroughgoing thematic study of key texts, poets and issues, analysing commonalities and differences across diverse writers, periods, and forms. The book is alert, throughout, to the diversity of women's poetry. Close readings of selected texts are combined with a discussion of key theories and critical practices, and students are encouraged to think about women's poetry in the light of debates about race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and regional and national identity. The book opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction which outlines various approaches to reading women's poetry. Seven chapters follow, and a Conclusion and section of useful resources close the book.Key FeaturesWide-ranging and flexible in scope, giving detailed consideration to widely-taught poets, texts, periods and issuesIntroduces themes, questions and perspectives applicable to the work of other less familiar writersEncourages informed discussion of the difficulties of defining a discrete genre of 'women's poetry'Offers valuable introductory and supplementary guidance for studentsDiscusses in detail poems by Margaret Cavendish, Anne Bradstreet, Sara Coleridge, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Edith Sitwell, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ruth Fainlight, Grace Nicholls, Eavan Boland, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy." This guide examines the production and reception of poetry by a range of women writers - predominantly although not exclusively writing in English - from Sappho through Anne Bradstreet and Emily Bronte to Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland and Susan Howe. Women's Poetry offers a thoroughgoing thematic study of key texts, poets and issues, analysing commonalities and differences across diverse writers, periods, and forms. The book is alert, throughout, to the diversity of women's poetry. Close readings of selected texts are combined with a discussion of key theories and critical practices, and students are encouraged to think about women's poetry in the light of debates about race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and regional and national identity. The book opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction which outlines various approaches to reading women's poetry. Seven chapters follow, and a Conclusion and section of useful resources close the book.Key Features* Wide-ranging and flexible in scope, giving detailed consideration to widely-taught poets, texts, periods and issues* Introduces themes, questions and perspectives applicable to the work of other less familiar writers* Encourages informed discussion of the difficulties of defining a discrete genre of 'women's poetry'* Offers valuable introductory and supplementary guidance for students* Discusses in detail poems by Margaret Cavendish, Anne Bradstreet, Sara Coleridge, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Edith Sitwell, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ruth Fainlight, Grace Nicholls, Eavan Boland, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy. This guide examines the production and reception of poetry by a range of women writers - predominantly although not exclusively writing in English - from Sappho through Anne Bradstreet and Emily Bronte to Sylvia Plath, Eavan Boland and Susan Howe. Women's Poetry offers a thoroughgoing thematic study of key texts, poets and issues, analysing commonalities and differences across diverse writers, periods, and forms. The book is alert, throughout, to the diversity of women's poetry. Close readings of selected texts are combined with a discussion of key theories and critical practices, and students are encouraged to think about women's poetry in the light of debates about race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and regional and national identity. The book opens with a chronology followed by a comprehensive Introduction which outlines various approaches to reading women's poetry. Seven chapters follow, and a Conclusion and section of useful resources close the book. Key Features Wide-ranging and flexible in scope, giving detailed consideration to widely-taught poets, texts, periods and issues Introduces themes, questions and perspectives applicable to the work of other less familiar writers Encourages informed discussion of the difficulties of defining a discrete genre of 'women's poetry' Offers valuable introductory and supplementary guidance for students Discusses in detail poems by Margaret Cavendish, Anne Bradstreet, Sara Coleridge, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, Edith Sitwell, Amy Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Ruth Fainlight, Grace Nicholls, Eavan Boland, Kathleen Jamie, Jackie Kay and Carol Ann Duffy COVER......Page 1 COPYRIGHT......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Series Preface......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 9 Chronology......Page 11 Prologue......Page 18 Introduction......Page 23 chapter 1 - Self-Reflexivity......Page 40 chapter 2 - Performance......Page 72 chapter 3 - Private Voices......Page 96 chapter 4 - Embodied Language......Page 128 chapter 5 - Public Speech......Page 155 chapter 6 - Poetry and Place......Page 183 chapter 7 - Experimentation and Form......Page 204 Conclusion......Page 222 Student Resources......Page 226 Index......Page 241