English studies have become the scene of the intense controversy with Marxism, feminism, deconstruction and the many varieties of structuralism all claiming to offer new insights into literature. In this book eight critics (John Holloway, Gabriel Josipovici, Cedric Watts, Wayne Booth, Robert Pattison, Anthony Thorlby, Roger Scruton, and Laurence Lerner) respond to the new movements, united by a refusal to abandon their trust in reason, the possibility of meaning and the need for value judgments. The result is a lively and humane book which offers new insights into literary theory and into particular works. The contributors, while taking the new schools of criticism seriously, often disagree with them, offering serious discussion on the value of structuralism and the merits of many of its practitioners.

Reconstructing Literature

Literature & Fiction

Lerner, Laurence

History & Criticism

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

An introduction to English poetry: Fifteen poems discussed by Laurence Lerner

Edward Arnold

A volume in the Writers and Their Work series, which draws upon recent thinking in English studies to introduce writers and their contexts. Each volume includes biographical material, an examination of recent criticism, a bibliography and a reappraisal of a major work by the writer.

Philip Larkin (Writers and Their Work)

British & Irish

Liverpool University Press

Philip Larkin is one of the finest English poets of our time. His poetic personality - nostalgic, wry, melancholy, ironic, witty and haunting - has appealed to a far wider audience than that of literary specialists, while also winning the respect of leading critics and fellow poets. Lerner's study relates poetry to Larkin's life, and to the literary and social environment of post-war Britain; discusses the Larkin persona, and Larkin's relation to literary criticism; and above all seeks to guide readers to a full appreciation of the power and subtlety of Larkin's best poems.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

What is the difference between public and private feeling, and how far can we deduce past feelings from the words that have been left us? Why do child deaths figure so often and so prominently in the literature of the nineteenth century, and how was the theme of the death of a child used to elicit such poignant responses in the readers of that era? In this fascinating new book, Laurence Lerner vividly contrasts the contempt with which twentieth- century criticism so often dismisses such works as mere sentimentality with the enthusiasm and tears of nineteenth-century contemporaries.
Drawing examples from both real and literary deaths, Lerner delves into the writings of well-known authors such as Dickens, Coleridge, Shelley, Flaubert, Mann, Huxley, and Hesse, as well as lesser known writers like Felicia Hemans and Lydia Sigourney. In the process, he synthesizes fresh ideas about the thorny subjects of sentimentality, aesthetic judgment, and the function of religion in literature.
Lerner's forthright and evocative prose style is enjoyable reading, and he excels in teasing out the moral implications and the psychosocial entanglements of his chosen narrative and lyrical texts. This is a book that will illuminate an important aspect of the history of private life. It should have wide application for those interested in the history, sociology, and literature of the nineteenth century.

Angels and Absences: Child Deaths in the Nineteenth Century

Parenting & Relationships

Vanderbilt University Press

The Victorians (The Context of English Literature)

Beginning with a history of Victorian fiction and poetry, considers the political, social, cultural and intellectual milieu of Victorian Britain influencing these writings

The Victorians

History

Europe

Holmes & Meier Pub

The Two Cinnas: Quakerism, Revolution and Poetry (Swarthmore Lecture)

Religion & Spirituality

Quaker Home Service

ARTHUR : the life and opinions of a digital computer

Poetry

Harvester Press

Reading Women's Poetry

Until quite recently, anthologies of English poetry contained very few poems by women, and histories of English poetry gave little space to women poets. How should poetry lovers respond? This book begins by suggesting four possible responses: (a) the conservative, which claims that women have not written many good poems; (b) the individual recuperation, which salvages some fine poems by women but without altering the general view of English poetry; (c) the alternative canon, which claims that women do not write the same kind of poetry as men, so that their work should be judged by different standards; and (d) the cultural recuperation, which claims that women's poetry is a significant cultural phenomenon, and should be read and studied without subjecting it to any tests. All these positions can be defended and Reading Women's Poetry has elements of them all. As the title indicates, this book is about reading women's poems, rather than forming theories about them. It explores the experience of reading the poetry of Aphra Behn, Elizabeth Browning, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson, and many others. Beginning with Katherine Philips, the first Englishwoman to achieve fame as a poet, the book covers three centuries to the work of Marianne Moore and Stevie Smith. The form of discussion of the selected poems will be helpful in engaging further with women poets of all calibers. Do women write differently from men? The author compares poems written by women with poems by men, not so much to ask who writes better poetry as to explore the similarities and differences. Thus, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is discussed along with Alexander Pope, Emily Dickinson along with Gerard Manly Hopkins, and Elizabeth Browning along with her husband. Poems by women should be read, enjoyed, and argued about. They can be related to the time they were written and first admired, or to our views on women's history, or to our expectations of what poetry can offer. Above all, they should be enjoyed. And that is the faith in which this book is written.

Until quite recently, anthologies of English poetry contained very few poems by women, and histories of English poetry gave little space to women poets. How should poetry lovers respond? This book begins by suggesting four possible responses: the conservative, which claims that women have not written many good poems; individual recuperation, which salvages some fine poems by women but without altering the general view of English poetry; alternative canon, which claims that women do not write the same kind of poetry as men, so that their work should be judged by different standards; and cultural recuperation, which claims that women’s poetry is a cultural phenomenon, and should be read and studied without subjecting it to any aesthetic tests. All these positions can be defended.  This book is about reading women’s poems, rather than forming theories about them: it explores the experience of reading Aphra Behn, Elizabeth Browning, Christina Rossetti, Emily Dickinson and many others. Beginning with Katherine Philips, the first Englishwoman to achieve fame as a poet, it covers three centuries to the work of Sylvia Plath and Stevie Smith. It is hoped that the form of discussion of the selected poems will be helpful in engaging further with women poets of all calibres.   Do women write differently from men? The author assumes no predetermined answer but is willing to ask the question  and in order to do so he compares poems by women with poems by men, exploring similarities and differences: thus Lady Mary Wortley Montagu is discussed with Alexander Pope, Emily Dickinson with Gerard Manley Hopkins and Elizabeth Browning with her husband. Poems by women can be related to the time they were written and first admired, or to our views on women’s history, or to our expectations of what poetry can offer  but above all they should be enjoyed. And that is the faith in which this book is written.

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