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Seamus Heaney
In this book Thomas C. Foster illustrates the importance of the social and political environment to Heaney's work and provides a critical overview of his career, with biographical information, chronology, bibliography. This book is the only critical study to include commentary and criticism on all of heaney's poetry, right through to The Haw Lantern.
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First published June 28, 2010
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About the author
Thomas C. Foster
20 books367 followersThomas C. Foster is Professor of English at the University of Michigan, Flint, where he teaches classes in contemporary fiction, drama, and poetry as well as creative writing and composition. Foster has been teaching literature and writing since 1975, the last twenty-one years at the University of Michigan-Flint. He lives in East Lansing, Michigan.
In addition to How to Read Novels Like a Professor (Summer 2008) and How to Read Literature Like a Professor (2003), both from HarperCollins, Foster is the author of Form and Society in Modern Literature (Northern Illinois University Press, 1988), Seamus Heaney (Twayne, 1989), and Understanding John Fowles(University of South Carolina Press, 1994). His novel The Professor's Daughter, is in progress.
Foster studied English at Dartmouth College and then Michigan State University, moving forward from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the twentieth in the process. His academic writing has concentrated on twentieth-century British, American, and Irish figures and movements—James Joyce, William Faulkner, Seamus Heaney, John Fowles, Derek Mahon, Eavan Boland, modernism and postmodernism. But he reads and teaches lots of other writers and periods: Shakespeare, Sophocles, Homer, Dickens, Hardy, Poe, Ibsen, Twain.
Author photograph courtesy of HarperCollins.
In addition to How to Read Novels Like a Professor (Summer 2008) and How to Read Literature Like a Professor (2003), both from HarperCollins, Foster is the author of Form and Society in Modern Literature (Northern Illinois University Press, 1988), Seamus Heaney (Twayne, 1989), and Understanding John Fowles(University of South Carolina Press, 1994). His novel The Professor's Daughter, is in progress.
Foster studied English at Dartmouth College and then Michigan State University, moving forward from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the twentieth in the process. His academic writing has concentrated on twentieth-century British, American, and Irish figures and movements—James Joyce, William Faulkner, Seamus Heaney, John Fowles, Derek Mahon, Eavan Boland, modernism and postmodernism. But he reads and teaches lots of other writers and periods: Shakespeare, Sophocles, Homer, Dickens, Hardy, Poe, Ibsen, Twain.
Author photograph courtesy of HarperCollins.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 8, 2018
An excellent critical analysis of Heaney's poetry, with some poems chosen from each of the early collections and thoroughly discussed. Strong arguments and exciting insights.
The book started strongly by combining Heaney's background with the texts that were being analyzed (this I liked). But as the book progressed, about half-way through or so, the background info no longer offered context to the works being analyzed. Instead, it became more and more of a critical analysis where later works were compared to earlier works. In principle, either method works just fine, but the shift in contextualization was jarring. There is no discernable reason why the analytical method changed. I'd have preferred the author to stick to one method of analysis.
The book is useful for anyone who wants to understand Heaney's poetry more deeply, or for academic studies regarding Heaney.
The book started strongly by combining Heaney's background with the texts that were being analyzed (this I liked). But as the book progressed, about half-way through or so, the background info no longer offered context to the works being analyzed. Instead, it became more and more of a critical analysis where later works were compared to earlier works. In principle, either method works just fine, but the shift in contextualization was jarring. There is no discernable reason why the analytical method changed. I'd have preferred the author to stick to one method of analysis.
The book is useful for anyone who wants to understand Heaney's poetry more deeply, or for academic studies regarding Heaney.
January 9, 2013
A review of "Heaney" is first a plebiscite on your tastes in literature. If you enjoy the Irish poets, and Heaney in particular, you will fully appreciate this book. If you choose this book as your introduction to the form, you might find it daunting. I found Heaney an entertaining read (Foster clearly knows and loves the Irish poets) but this might be tough sledding for someone as a first read on Irish poetry. Four stars.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews