The Cambridge Companion to Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is a unique phenomenon in contemporary literature, as a poet whose individual volumes (such as his Beowulf translation, and individual volumes of poems such as Electric Light and District and Circle) have been high in the bestseller lists for decades. Since winning the Nobel Prize for Literature, he has come to be considered one of the most important English language poets in the world. This Companion gives an overview of his career and of his reception in Ireland, England and around the world. Its distinguished contributors offer detailed readings of his major publications, in poetry, prose and translation. The essays further explore the central themes of his poetry, his relations with other writers, and his prose writing. Designed for students, this volume will also have much to interest and inform the general reader and admirer of Heaney's unique poetic voice.
- An authoritative and up-to-date account of Heaney's work and its themes
- Heaney is placed in his context as an important public poet in Ireland and around the world
- The full guide to further reading is an excellent way into Heaney scholarship
Product details
December 2008Hardback
9780521838825
262 pages
235 × 155 × 17 mm
1.03kg
Available
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction Bernard O'Donoghue
- 2. Heaney's working titles: from Advancement of Learning to Midnight Anvil Rand Brandes
- 3. The context of Heaney's reception Patrick Crotty
- 4. Heaney in public Dennis O'Driscoll
- 5. Heaney and the feminine Fran Brearton
- 6. Heaney and Eastern Europe Justin Quinn
- 7. Heaney's classics and the bucolic Bernard O'Donoghue
- 8. Professing poetry: Heaney as critic David Wheatley
- 9. Heaney and the Irish Poetic Tradition Andrew Murphy
- 10. Irish influence and confluence in Heaney's poetry Dillon Johnston
- 11. Heaney and Yeats Neil Corcoran
- 12. Heaney's Wordsworth and the poetics of displacement Guinn Batten
- 13. Heaney, Beowulf, and the medieval literature of the north Heather O'Donoghue
- 14. Crediting marvels: Heaney after 50 John Wilson Foster
- Guide to further reading
- Index.