1st Edition
Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry Cultural Identities, Political Crises
Delving into the landscapes and politics of twentieth- and twenty-first-century South, East, and West Yorkshire, Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry: Cultural Identities, Political Crises theorises Yorkshire as a distinct region of poetry in its own right. In outlining the commonalities and parameters of this branch of poetry, Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry engages the work with a selection of poets writing in and about the region since 1945, including Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Simon Armitage, Helen Mort, Zaffar Kunial, Kate Fox, and Vicky Foster. Charting the developments in Yorkshire poetry, this book explores several key contexts – including deindustrialisation, the Miners’ Strikes, and Brexit – in detail, evidencing the impacts of these sociopolitical events on the poetry of a region. Modern and Contemporary Yorkshire Poetry investigates 75 years of poetry to ask the question: what is Yorkshire poetry? In other words, what is it that connects poems by these writers, whilst setting them apart from poetry of other UK regions?
Acknowledgments
Credits Page
Introduction
Chapter 1: Places, People, and Narrative Perspectives in Philip Larkin’s East Yorkshire
Chapter 2: Place and Identity in Modern and Contemporary Poetry from East Yorkshire
Chapter 3: Cultural Histories and Personal Identities in Ted Hughes’s West Yorkshire Poetry
Chapter 4: Personal, Political and Place-Based Identities in Modern and Contemporary South Yorkshire Poetry
Chapter 5: (Re)Defining Place-Based Identities in Simon Armitage’s Writing from and of West Yorkshire
Chapter 6: Identities, Stereotypes and Legacies of Place in Modern and Contemporary West Yorkshire Poetry
Chapter 7: Identity and the Politics of Brexit in Matt Abbott’s West Yorkshire
Conclusions
Index
Biography
Kyra Piperides is a researcher of place and politics in modern and contemporary poetry. Kyra studied at the University of Hull, where she gained her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, then at the University of York for her PhD. She is a trustee of the Philip Larkin Society and editor of the journal About Larkin. Kyra has a PGCE and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy; she has taught at the University of York, the University of Huddersfield, and various schools and sixth-form colleges in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Kyra is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Huddersfield.
