Englishness and Post-imperial Space: The Poetry of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes
Englishness and Post-imperial Space: The Poetry of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes probes into the English mindset immediately after the British withdrawal from the colonies, and examines how the loss of power and global prestige affected contemporary poetry, particularly that of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes. Frustration and disillusionment, even anger, characterised the era and many of the literary works the period produced. Most writers became insular and were obsessed with the ‘English’ elements in their writing. The great, international and cosmopolitan themes (of Eliot, for instance) were replaced by those of narrow domestic importance. It is in such a context, this book argues, that Larkin and Hughes returned to the old England, most notably to the themes of gradually vanishing pristine landscape and national myths and legends, to the archetypal English customs and conventions. It examines their poetry mainly from the perspective of Englishness, a burgeoning area of academic interest. Intricately connected with the values emanating from England as a geographical and socio-cultural space, Englishness as a concept is intrinsic to the identity of a people who gradually became globally powerful. The loss of empire dealt a severe blow to this sense of the self. This book explores the dynamics of the representation of this sense of loss and the frustration it produced in the poems of Larkin and Hughes.
Milton Sarkar is Assistant Professor at the Department of English at APC College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Previously, he taught as a Guest Faculty at the University of Burdwan and Netaji Subhas Open University. He wrote his PhD dissertation on the poetry of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes. His main area of interest is post-Fifties British poetry. The recipient of several academic distinctions, Sarkar has a number of publications to his credit, and has presented papers at various national and international events.
"The book is an interesting addition to the area of the study of literary Englishness, and especially one that assesses the poetic oeuvre of two poets who have been considered to be radically different in their approaches. [...] By problematising the mutual spaces of cultural inquiry, Sarkar has presented the first conclusive survey of the two poets, and the jointly occupied coordinate of the nature of Englishness that each proposes in his respective poetry."
Subashish Bhattacharjee Munshi Premchand College The Apollonian, 3:1-2 (March-June 2016)
"The book is [the] first of its kind to study the poetry of Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes from a postcolonial/post-imperial perspective. [...] Sarkar brilliantly expounds the apparent paradigm shift in the Movementeers' representations from the earlier versions of imperialism, dominance, superiority, and adventurism. Sarkar's language is direct, concise and free from academic jargon, and his arguments are clear and coherent, followed by categorical conclusions. Hence, it will be easy for any reader to grasp the quintessence of Britishness/Englishness from the imperial age to the post-War, post-imperial, postcolonial stage. [...] Sarkar's book offers a commendable and comprehensive reading of Englishness and post-imperial space through the looking glasses of Larkin and Hughes."
Dr T. Ravichandran Champa Devi Gangwal Chair & Professor of English, ITF-Kanpur Gandhigram Literary Review, 5 (2016)
"Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes represent two opposite poetical sensibilities in Brititsh Literarture of the post –war period. Although they have figured in the reading lists for the English major courses in various institutions, they were read individually as two British poets. [...] There was a gap in the intellectual map in construing their Britishness vis-à-vis their political and cultural contexts. Milton Sarkar’s critical study aims precisely to fill up this gap and one should say, to a large extent it succeeds. [...] Sarkar has taken up a well-defined area of study that rarely crosses its boundaries even when problematic issues rear their heads from it."
Dr C.T. Indira Department of English, University of Madras The Book Review, XLI:1 (2017)
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