Quote of the Day
an admirable concern to keep lines open to writing in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and America.
Seamus Heaney
|
|
Book Search
Subscribe to our mailing list
|
|
The Dual TraditionThomas Kinsella
Categories: 20th Century, Irish
Imprint: Lives and Letters Publisher: Carcanet Press Available as: Paperback (128 pages) (Pub. May 1995) 9781857541823 Out of Stock
. . . It is not a history of Irish literature, but a view of the poetry and some of the other literature which the people of those level plains helped to produce during a particularly brutal and long-suffering past, when one of that people's greatest losses was the loss of its own language . . .
Irish literature exists in two languages. A dual approach is necessary if the tradition, with its historical, political and semantic tensions, is to be understood-indeed, if some of its features are to be appreciated at all.
Separate Gaelic and Anglo-Irish anthologies and commentaries have long been readily available, but commentaries dealing with the total Irish literary response are rare. In The Dual Tradition Thomas Kinsella presents a view of poetry in Ireland from early times to the present day, concentrating on the periods of most radical adjustment and change: the coming of Christianity; Norman and later settlement; the end of the bardic period; colonialism and dispossession; politics before Famine and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries centuries. He brings Yeats and Joyce into new focus and considers in special detail the poetry of Austin Clarke, Patrick Kavanagh and Samuel Beckett. The translations from the Irish are by the author.
Awards won by Thomas Kinsella
Commended, 2007 Poetry Book Society
(Selected Poems)
Praise for Thomas Kinsella
'These are not poems to be read swiftly, relished once and set aside. They are often, for all their music, discomforting. Their uncertainties, questionings and images lure the reader to wonder and return.'
Kathleen Bell, Everybody's Reviewing 'Kinsella's lines are beautifully wrought, the stanzas gently rhymed, and the poet, in masterful style, at once delivers and undercuts the 'rhetoric' of beauty and consolation.' Seán Hewitt, The Irish Times 'The most complex and multi-layered of the Peppercanister poems...taken with the 1968 and 1973 volumes and some of the earlier poems may comprise the most challenging, most achieved, and therefore most rewarding body of poetry from the British Isles over the past half-century.' The Cambridge History of Irish Literature 'With unique memorability and force these poems, in the words of 'Belief and Unbelief'€™, coax us to follow their author in search of understanding 'back to the dark / and the depths that I came from'. No one who cares about poetry should hesitate to embark on the journey.' The Guardian |
Share this...
Quick Links
Carcanet Poetry
Carcanet Classics
Carcanet Fiction
Carcanet Film
Lives and Letters
PN Review
Video
Carcanet Celebrates 50 Years!
The Carcanet Blog
Coco Island: Christine Roseeta Walker
read more
that which appears: Thomas A Clark
read more
Come Here to This Gate: Rory Waterman
read more
Near-Life Experience: Rowland Bagnall
read more
The Silence: Gillian Clarke
read more
Baby Schema: Isabel Galleymore
read more
|
We thank the Arts Council England for their support and assistance in this interactive Project.
|
|
This website ©2000-2024 Carcanet Press Ltd
|