The Body and Desire in Contemporary Irish Poetry (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780716533689)

The essays in this collection deal with contemporary Irish poetry and the question of the desiring body as a cultural and historical product, a biological entity and a psycho-sexual construction, and not least as an existential being. Drawing upon the literary theories of, among others, the French post-structuralists, the psychoanalytic theories of Lacan and Kristeva, the philosophies of Merleau-Ponty and Levinas, and feminist philosophers, such as Donna Haraway and Susan Bordo. The contributors explore how contemporary Irish poets, both male and female, give expression to what might be termed a reassessment of material experience. With their various approaches they address the various ways in which the body can be seen as an agent of empowerment and change in the work of Eavan Boland, Ciaran Carson, Mary Dorcey, Seamus Heaney, Rita Ann Higgins, Thomas Kinsella, Michael Longley, Derek Mahon, Medbh McGuckian, Paula Meehan, John Montague, Paul Muldoon, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain and Nuala Ni Dhomhnaill.

Author: Irene Gilsenan Nordin,Scott Brewster,Eluned Summers-Bremner
ISBN-10: 0716533685
ISBN-13: 9780716533689
Publisher: Irish Academic Press
Language: English
Published: 04/01/2006
Pages: 264
Format: Hardcover

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 11/01/2006 pg. 302