Author Description

"Ted Hughes wrote in a wide range of modes which were informed by an even wider range of contexts to which his lifetime's reading, interests and experience gave him access. The achievement of Ted Hughes as one of the major poets of the twentieth century is complimented by his growing reputation as a writer of letters, plays, literary criticism and translations. In addition, Hughes made important contributions to education, literary history, emergent environmentalism and debates about life writing. Ted Hughes in Context brings together thirty-four contributors who inform new readings of the works, and conceptualize Hughes's work within long-standing critical traditions while acknowledging a new awareness of his future importance. This collection offers consideration not only of the most important aspects of Hughes's work, but also the most neglected"-- "The book begins by distinguishing Hughes's poetic interests and achievements in relation to his contemporaries, in particular, Thom Gunn, Philip Larkin and Seamus Heaney. It seems appropriate to end this opening section on 'Literary Contexts' with a consideration of 'Hughes's Literary Legacy'. There follow chapters on five different genres that mark Hughes's achievement in addition to that of a poet, for which a single chapter would be absurdly inadequate; the poetic achievement is so central to all his work that it is evidenced throughout this book. The five 'Stylistic Contexts' are necessarily selective but contain new material deftly discussed by experts in their fields. Similarly a wealth of detail is revealed in the 'Geopolitical Contexts' of Yorkshire, America and Ireland. The sometimes difficult, or puzzling, area of Hughes's interests that might be called 'Anthropological Contexts' provides the opportunity to clarify the influences of religion, shamanism and the occult. Four chapters consider 'Historical Contexts' beginning with the literary importance of texts from the Middle Ages and ending with an understanding of Hughes's position in the tradition of the Laureateship"--