1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910785476703321

Autore

Wasley Aidan <1968->

Titolo

The age of Auden [[electronic resource] ] : postwar poetry and the American scene / / Aidan Wasley

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, N.J., : Princeton University Press, 2010

ISBN

1-282-93644-1

9786612936449

1-4008-3635-2

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (281 p.)

Disciplina

813/.5409

Soggetti

American poetry - 20th century - History and criticism

Influence (Literary, artistic, etc.) - History - 20th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Content -- List of Abbreviations -- Preface -- Prologue. Auden in "Atlantis" -- Part I -- 1. A Way of Happening -- Part II -- 2. Father of Forms -- 3. The Gay Apprentice -- 4 The Old Sources -- Epilogue. He Became His Admirers: -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

W. H. Auden's emigration from England to the United States in 1939 marked more than a turning point in his own life and work--it changed the course of American poetry itself. The Age of Auden takes, for the first time, the full measure of Auden's influence on American poetry. Combining a broad survey of Auden's midcentury U.S. cultural presence with an account of his dramatic impact on a wide range of younger American poets--from Allen Ginsberg to Sylvia Plath--the book offers a new history of postwar American poetry. For Auden, facing private crisis and global catastrophe, moving to the United States became, in the famous words of his first American poem, a new "way of happening." But his redefinition of his work had a significance that was felt far beyond the pages of his own books. Aidan Wasley shows how Auden's signal role in the work and lives of an entire younger generation of American poets challenges conventional literary histories that place Auden outside the American poetic tradition. In making his case, Wasley pays special attention to three of Auden's most



distinguished American inheritors, presenting major new readings of James Merrill, John Ashbery, and Adrienne Rich. The result is a persuasive and compelling demonstration of a novel claim: In order to understand modern American poetry, we need to understand Auden's central place within it.