Reading Medbh McGuckian is a highly original study of renowned Ulster
poet Medbh McGuckian. Fellow poet Leontia Flynn offers close readings of
McGuckian's early and mid-career work and sheds new light on the poet's
complexities, while remaining clear, accessible, and insightful.
Availing of valuable new research, the book suggests and illustrates
that much of McGuckian's poetic language is gathered from an array of
other sources. The book begins as a series of observational readings,
analyzing the poems and textual materials from which the poetry has been
developed, and goes on to suggest how this poetic technique is evident
throughout her work. Assuming several critical perspectives, the book
adopts an original - and at times unconventional - approach and gives a
sense of the challenges McGuckian's poetry presents to readers. It
examines the poet's evolving style over the last three decades in which
she has published over a dozen poetry collections. It also shows how
McGuckian persuades her readers to think differently about women,
poetry, and tradition - constructing McGuckian's meanings where
possible, but also insisting that the mysteries and pleasures of the
poetry remain intact. *** "Whether or not you are interested in
McGuckian's poetry, the book is valuable for the way that it teases
apart the meaning of concepts like clarity and coherence, meaning and
sense. If it is the job of poetry to blur such distinctions, it is the
job of criticism to distinguish these elements so that they can be
blurred." - Irish Literary Supplement, Vol. 35, No. 1, Fall 2015
[Subject: Poetry, Literary Criticism, Irish Studies, Women's
Studies]Ã?Â?Ã?Â?
