Don PatersonContemporary Critical Essays
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About this book
The first book-length critical study of the contemporary British poet, Don Paterson
- Includes essays by leading literary critics and writers, two interviews with Paterson, a critical introduction and a bibliography
- Considers Paterson’s place in the contemporary British poetry scene, examining the influence of modern American, English and Irish, European and Scottish literature on his writing
- Analyses literary qualities across Paterson’s poetry and prose, from his sonnets to his long sequences, his aphorisms to his versions and translations
- Examines Paterson’s published theoretical work on poetic form, metre, rhythm and sound and his arguments about lyric practice in his editorial work and his interviews and essays
- Attends to key issues in British poetry and publishing, including: translation, national and international identities, spirituality and religion, the contemporary poetry industry, poetry and mathematics, the intersections of poetry, art and music, and psychoanalysis and the body
Eight essays by leading literary critics and writers explore the social, historical and personal dimensions of Paterson’s poetry and prose. Situating his work in dialogue with the classical, medieval, early modern, modernist and contemporary voices that inform it, the book considers Paterson as a figure actively negotiating his place within literary history and theory, as well as confronting that history with humour and directness.
Reviews
Don Paterson is fast becoming one of the representative poets of our time. His readers, and anyone interested in contemporary poetry and poetics, will enjoy this book’s two illuminating interviews with the poet and how its essays range across Paterson’s work, attending in innovative, stimulating ways to what one essay calls ‘his self-conscious and virtuoso mastery of form’. John McAuliffe, University of Manchester
Table of contents
Acknowledgements; List of Abbreviations; List of Contributors; Introduction; Part I: Patterns and Paterson: Forms, Techniques, Histories; 1. Don Paterson’s Ars Poetica, Derek Attridge; 2. Golden Means: Music, Translation and the Patersonnet, Hugh Haughton; 3. No-Score Drawing: Postmodern Games in Don Paterson, Edward Larrissy; 4. Cleaving Nothing From Nothing: Post-Romantic Negation and Affirmation in Don Paterson, Michael O’Neill; 5. An Interview between Don Paterson and Derek Attridge, Form in Poetry; Part II: Poetry in its Place: Responses and Responsibilities; 6. Scotland, Britain and The Elsewhere of Poetry, Gerard Carruthers; 7. On Spirituality and Transcendence, Jo George; 8. Natalie Pollard, Hiding in Full View: Dark Material and Light Writing; 9. Peter Robinson, Punching Yourself in the Face: Don Paterson and his Readers; 10. An Interview between Don Paterson and Matthew Sperling, The Publishing of Poetry; Select Bibliography