Antony Rowland's third collection showcases his distinctive poetic voice, drawing comparisons to both John Ashbery and Ezra Pound. As a Professor of Modern and Contemporary Poetry, Rowland explores complex themes and innovative forms, reflecting his deep engagement with contemporary literary traditions. This collection promises to offer readers a rich tapestry of modern poetic expression.
Focusing on testimonial poetry, this book examines how Holocaust, war, working-class, and 9/11 poetry serve as powerful forms of witness to trauma. The author, Rowland, posits that these poems necessitate a unique analytical approach, distinct from traditional poetry interpretation, due to the weight of the metatext—the original traumatic events. The work emphasizes the need for heightened attentiveness to the emotional and historical contexts that shape these poetic expressions of suffering and resilience.
Exploring the intersection of digital culture and Holocaust memory, this book provides an in-depth analysis of how contemporary technology shapes our understanding of historical trauma. It examines the implications of virtual memory on collective remembrance and the challenges of preserving the authenticity of Holocaust narratives in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Through this lens, it highlights the importance of maintaining the integrity of memory while adapting to new forms of representation and engagement.
This book discusses contemporary British poetry in the context of
metamodernism. It asks if the concept of metamodernist poetry helps to
recalibrate the opposition between mainstream and innovative poetry, and
whether a new generation of British poets can be accurately defined as
metamodernist.
"Antony Rowland digs the word hoard to unearth sinewy lines of dark material - the insides of buried histories, public and private. He is an archaeologist of always alert to the unexpected coinage ('Shram bobs the gracht'), these poems pay tribute to people and places lost and found, whether teenage kinship with the Brontës, a foreboding proximity to the Yorkshire Ripper, or celebrations of absent friends. Channelling influences such as Geoffrey Hill and Tony Harrison, Rowland sets out a project uniquely his own to rework history in these 'measures against outrages', always alive to poetry's 'guilty retrieval'. These are formidable sequences, scrupulous to a taint, steeped in the earth." - Scott Thurston"In Antony Rowland's Caldebroc England's North revivifies its aural mythmaking. There is a lyric wildness here met with a sonic concatenation that is breathtaking, precise and tireless - electrifying place by refuting the nation's view of its marginal regions. Even geographical and linguistic departures bring a paradoxical insiderly displacement. Rowland's poetics of defamiliarisation, of elsewhere's habitations within the already-known, ultimately stands between us - and any sense of home - asking us not where we belong but why." - Sandeep Parmar