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British Prose Poetry Jane Monson Editor British Prose Poetry British Prose Poetry Jane Monson Editor British Prose Poetry The Poems Without Lines Editor Jane Monson University of Cambridge Cambridge, UK ISBN 978-3-319-77862-4 ISBN 978-3-319-77863-1 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-77863-1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940734 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018, corrected publication 2018 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifcally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microflms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifc statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affliations. Cover credit: AC Manley/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland PREFACE In 2002, N. Santilli published the frst full-length critical study of the British prose poem with the telling title: Such Rare Citings: The Prose Poem in English Literature. Today, the book is still unique: although it is in good company with other exemplary critical texts on prose poetry— among the authors of which are Margueritte S. Murphy, Mary Ann Caws, Hermine Riffaterre, Stephen Fredman, Michel Delville, Tzvetan Todorov, Steven Monte, Marjorie Perloff and Ron Silliman—it remains the only book that homes in on the prose poem in English Literature, rather than that of France or America. Since Santilli’s publication, there has been an outpouring of British prose poetry in terms of creative texts, anthologies and solo collections alike, but a comparative dearth of critical material, especially collated, on the British prose poem. British Prose Poetry: Poems Without Lines is assembled to address this imbalance between critical material and the creative output/practice of the form, and to provide the frst single volume of essays on the form and genre, paying particular attention to its narrative and role within British Literature (poetry and also prose) since the nineteenth century through to the twenty-frst. While the essays are predominantly critical, I have included a couple of more pedagogical and biographical essays as part of conveying a necessary and interdisciplinary story of the British prose poem. The fuid movement of the essays, and of the book as a whole, between genres, forms, research, theory, practice, pedagogy, methodology and experience, is fundamental to the unique approach of the essayists towards the topic. Indeed, these precise conversations and v vi PREFACE conscious efforts to combine all of these disciplines are vital to under- standing the entire narrative of the British prose poem, and also the rea- son it has undergone a resurgence in British literature in recent decades. In keeping with the focus, each contributor to this book has been cho- sen for the signifcance of their critical and creative output towards the genre; they have all published leading articles and books on the prose poem, edited anthologies, or had volumes of their own published by both mainstream and independent presses. This book of essays is an opportunity not only for the reader to understand more about the British prose poem—what it is, how it emerged, why its acceptance has fuctuated so much in the UK—but also to learn more about the story of the prose poem from its contro- versial beginnings in the nineteenth century to its notable burgeoning in the twenty-frst via ebbs and fows in the last century. In terms of the book’s focus on British prose poetry, there is a distinction to be made here between British and English literature. The background to this vol- ume’s understanding of the prose poem in Britain is the prose poem in English literature, which is prose poetry written in the English language anywhere in the world. The prose poetry of the English Canon, in this respect, is represented in the translated and American examples that fea- ture in many of the essays. But what takes place once the historical over- view has been established is a dedicated study of prose poetry produced by both British and international writers based in the UK. It is this more recent interest, practice, production, teaching and performance of the prose poem in the UK itself that the essays individually and together seek to question and understand. Further to this, there are numerous and diverse examples of prose poetry in English and several other languages, but why in the UK is the recognition and acceptance of prose poetry so much more recent—and, yet more recent still, the public emergence of international UK-based prose poets? This question is driven by an over- arching positive approach towards what is happening now—celebrating the augmentation of the contemporary British prose poem and the inter- national and global infuences that are an intrinsic part of its complex role and status. As part of a more general1 and academic recognition of the British prose poem, there have naturally been questions, conversations, debates 1By general, I mean that the prose poem is now being taken more seriously by main- stream publishers, as well as established independent presses. Preface vii and a variety of readers and writers doing their best to work out what it is, why it is, how it is and where it is. The ‘where’ of these questions is important and the one I want to address here, frst, while the others are examined in the rest of the volume. In his 2012 essay for A Companion to Poetic Genre, Andy Brown (one of this book’s contributors) begins the ‘where’ conversation by stating: Work [has begun] on the widespread appearance of the prose poem in mainstream British poetry. Just as with the critical fxation on Aloysius Bertrand as the ‘originator’ of the form, I believe we need to move on from the avant-garde appropriation of the prose poem as a vehicle of ‘radi- cal’ expression—the appearance of prose poetry in mainstream British writ- ing is a welcome development of its traditions. In 1971 Geoffrey Hill published Mercian Hymns, a book that has become, perhaps, the most celebrated example of the British prose poem. Shortly afterward Seamus Heaney published Stations, a series of autobio- graphical prose poems some of which are still included in his Selected and Collected Poems. In fact Heaney continues to write prose poetry, with sev- eral examples appearing in his recent collection District and Circle. Faber & Faber continue to champion the prose poem—from its early appear- ance in T. S. Eliot’s oeuvre (‘Hysteria’ in Prufrock) through to the work of Maurice Riordan (The Holy Land is comprised of over half prose poetry) and Alice Oswald, whose acclaimed bookwork Dart blends prose, poetry, documentary, and interview into one of the most radical reworkings of poetry of place. We can clearly see that the ‘radical’ boundary is simply no longer helpful. Nor does it stop there. Mainstream British publishers Jonathan Cape champion the work of John Burnside; the editor at Cape, Robin Robertson, also writes and publishes prose poetry in his acclaimed books for Picador.2 This book supports Brown’s assertion and reviews the possibility that Britain, the very place that has had a nonplussed, hostile, question- ing and undiscerning view of the prose poem, is now potentially the very place where it will fourish. As part of this review, each writer here considers the broader context of literary traditions and rules, question- ing and probing the tradition of great English poets who have upheld 2Andy Brown, “The Emergent Prose Poem” in A Companion to Poetic Genre, ed. Erik Martiny (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2012), 327–328. viii PREFACE and exemplifed the time-honoured valued unit and basis of poetry, the line—and, in turn, the break and the stanza. These writers ask directly and indirectly: what place is there for ‘poetry’ that refutes the line-break and takes in hand the sentence and, in turn, the paragraph? Is poetry still poetry when it uses the sentence, rather than the line, as its basic unit? In the twenty-frst century, what has been happening is that the practitioners themselves have long since started and continue to develop these conversations proactively in critical and pedagogical contexts, among them leading authors of the form: Carrie Etter, Ian Seed, Patricia Debney, Lucy Hamilton, Michael Rosen, Andy Brown, George Szirtes, Linda Black, Jeff Hilson, Luke Kennard, Geraldine Monk and Ágnes Lehóczky. In its embracing of both the practice and research of prose poetry, the book aims to appeal as much to Creative Writing students and research- ers as it does to dedicated practitioners of the prose poem wanting to understand more about the history, theory and nature of the form. It will appeal to those asking questions about the British prose poem: its origins, infuences, impact and relationship with other similar genres or forms.
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