Description
Robert Lowell was one of the most influential American poets of the 20th century. This volume explores the various contexts of Lowell's life and work and evaluates his oeuvre from new perspectives. Individual chapters address his relation to the South, his religious evolution, aspects of his marriages and private life, his bipolar disorder seen through new theories of mental illness, his work as a letter writer and a connoisseur of art and photography. The book also introduces new parameters for a contemporary study of Lowell, commenting on current debates about race and privilege, feminism, ecoconsciousness, his engagement with the natural environment as well as his friendships with Randall Jarrell and Robert Penn Warren.
Table of Contents
Contributors; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction. Robert Lowell in Context; Part I. Places: 1. Boston Grzegorz Kosc; 2. The American south Joseph Kuhn; 3. New York Jeffrey Gray; 4. England and Ireland Tony Roberts; Part II. American Politics, American Wars: 5. War Walt Hunter; 6. US presidency Alex Runchman; 7. Ecoconsciousness Adam Beardsworth; Part III. Some Literary Models: 8. Classics John Talbot; 9. Melville Stephen Matterson; 10. Plaints Meg Tyler; Part IV. Contemporaries: Modernists and Beyond: 11. T. S. Eliot Stephen Regan; 12. Ezra pound Richard Parker; 13. John Berryman Philip Coleman; 14. Warren and Jarrell Joan Romano Shifflett; 15. Elizabeth Bishop Thomas Travisano; Part V. Life, Illness, and the Arts: 16. Religion Thomas Austenfeld; 17. Marriage Lucy Collins; 18. Desensationalizing madness Astrid Franke; 19. Photography Anita Helle; 20. Painting Diederik Oostdijk; Part VI. Reputation and New Contexts: 21. Letters Calista McRae; 22. Whiteness Nikki Skillman; 23. Appropriation Hannah Baker Saltmarsh; 24. 'Raw' poets Andrew Epstein; 25. Lowell's influence Steven Gould Axelrod; 26. Language and post-language poets Kacper Bartczak; Further reading; Index.
