Such Deliberate Disguises

The Art of Philip Larkin
Erscheinungsjahr 2008
ISBN: 978-0-8264-9118-3
Verlag: Continnuum-3PL

Buch, Englisch, 200 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 473 g

Reihe: Continuum Literary Studies

new work in which Palmer argues that Larkin deliberately created masks and personae in all his writing, which enabled his creativity but also invited others to misunderstand his work.

Such Deliberate Disguises: The Art of Philip Larkin argues that a true understanding of Philip Larkin as man and poet lies beyond his enduring public appeal and the variety of criticism that has recently been applied to his work.

Richard Palmer suggests that the ostensible simplicity of Larkin's writing, which continues to attract so many readers to him, is deceptive, masking as it does one of the richest and most resonant of oeuvres in twentieth-century poetry. Penetrating the many masks of Larkin, the book sheds new and considerable light on the hitherto largely ignored spiritual significance of his work. Based upon close and scrupulous reading of the poems themselves, it draws upon insights gained from the history of art and the study of religion and myth as much as literary criticism and personal biography.

It also brings long-overdue attention to what is seen to be perhaps the chief love, and operative aesthetic force, of Larkin’s life: jazz. Such Deliberate Disguises is thus a major contribution, not just to Larkin studies, but to the wider cultural history of our times.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Palmer, Richard

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft
• Geisteswissenschaften Musikwissenschaft Musikgattungen Jazz

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
Preface
Part I: Larkin's Jazz: 'An Enormous Yes'
1. Prologue: 'Useful to get That Learnt'
2. All What Jazz: Larkin's Most Expensive Mistake
3. 'Essential Beauty'
4. Conclusion: 'The Natural Noise of Good'
Part II: Arrival: Larkin's Mature Verse
5. Departures and Arrivals
6. Larkin and Religion
7. Fears, Antipathies & Aversions
Part III: Larkin the Librarian
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Richard Palmer is Director of General Education at Bedford School, where for twenty years he was Head of English. A regular contributor to Jazz Journal International, he has published widely in the fields of literature, education and jazz.