• Login
    View Item 
    •   DORA Home
    • Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities
    • School of Humanities
    • View Item
    •   DORA Home
    • Faculty of Art, Design and Humanities
    • School of Humanities
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Women and the Lyric in and beyond the Twentieth Century

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Women and the Lyric in the Twentieth Century.doc (27.5Kb)
    Date
    2010
    Author
    Dowson, Jane
    Metadata
    Show attachments and full item record
    Abstract
    We shall consider the state of the lyric in contemporary poetry by looking back at developments through the twentieth century. Its traditionally acontextual abstractions have made the lyric seem the most innocuous of forms, especially in the hands of women; however, Culler (1975), Adorno (1974) and Maguire (2000) view it as the most potent of literatures because it validates individual empirical expression over official public discourses and conventional literary articulations or prescriptions. Standing mid-century, Stevie Smith registers a perceptible transition from women’s impersonal pronouns and strong formalism to a multivocal dramatic lyricism and artistic freedom. At the end of the century we find women preferring and excelling in the social dialogues which reorientate lyrical expression; here, poets negotiate between a postmodern scepticism towards the articulation of a fixed, universalising unitary self and the politics of identity which seeks authentic expression of underclass experience. While Shapcott, Hill and Alvi, continue to evade gender, or any, affiliation through the personae of vegetables, animals or disembodied souls, Duffy’s acclaimed Rapture (2005) is unashamedly personal. However, the rich intertextuality, maintains a self-conscious gap between the subject and the language available that negotiates between the requirements of the lyric’s ‘social antagonism’ and compensatory aesthetic function. We shall end by testing the claims of a ‘new confessionalism’ in selected poems from the ‘Next Generation’ group who were promoted in 2004
    Description
    This article stemmed from the lecture given as part of the British Council tour in 2007
    Citation : Dowson, J. (2010) Women and the Lyric in and beyond the Twentieth Century. Philologist – Journal of Language, Literary and Cultural Studies, 1
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/2086/6333
    http://filologbl.com/index.php/filolog/article/view/5/5
    Research Group : English Research Group
    Peer Reviewed : Yes
    Collections
    • School of Humanities [1781]

    Submission Guide | Reporting Guide | Reporting Tool | DMU Open Access Libguide | Take Down Policy | Connect with DORA
    DMU LIbrary
     

     

    Browse

    All of DORACommunities & CollectionsAuthorsTitlesSubjects/KeywordsResearch InstituteBy Publication DateBy Submission DateThis CollectionAuthorsTitlesSubjects/KeywordsResearch InstituteBy Publication DateBy Submission Date

    My Account

    Login

    Submission Guide | Reporting Guide | Reporting Tool | DMU Open Access Libguide | Take Down Policy | Connect with DORA
    DMU LIbrary