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This thesis investigates aspects of the writing, reading, and marketing of contemporary Scottish poetry, suggesting that readers of contemporary poetry are influenced in their reading by marketplace forces as well as by their early academic training. The thesis attempts to reflect this combination of influences on the reader, but it also seeks to reflect the awareness of these influences in the poets' work. The Dream State concentrates on factors which condition the reading of contemporary Scottish poetry, and on some of the poetry of seven poets who became established in the 1990s: John Burnside, Robert Crawford, W. N. Herbert, Tracey Herd, Kathleen Jamie, Don Paterson and Robin Robertson. Alert to the political climate of Scottish devolution and to a literary climate which saw the simultaneous appearance of the anthology Dream State: The New Scottish Poets and the 1994 New Generation poetry promotion, the thesis examines the pressures of expectation on these Scottish poets writing in English and Scots during the 1990s. The thesis argues that the complexity of their poems and jobs as poets in this period is best understood by 'thinking together' (Steven Connor) the principles of Practical Criticism and publishing history's approach to literature in the marketplace; I draw on research fi-om a combination of critical sources in literary theory and criticism, book history and interviews/correspondence with poets, teachers and the booktrade. Chapters describing critical narratives which can pre-empt reading - the theoretical spaces of contemporary Scottish poetry, the origins of Practical Criticism, and academic/commercial expectations of the reader - are followed by chapters on the work of these seven poets. Chapter 4 examines longer poems as a reflection of the poets' concerns about personal and national identity, and Chapter 5 discusses the poets' exploration of their social and literary environments. The Conclusion discusses the significance of what I term the museum poem and of anthologies of twentieth-century Scottish poetry, drawing on Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project for an appropriate model of contemporary reading.

Text in Afrikaans / Die Afrikaanse poesie van die tagtigerjare toon 'n ryke verskeidenheid deurdat ouer digters soos Eybers, Breytenbach, Cussons, Stockenstrom en Ernst van Heerden voortdig en 'n groot aantal nuwelinge na vore tree. Hoewel die groep digters die grense van "generasie" ver oorskry, blyk dit dat hulle 'n baie li tererbewuste groep kunstenaars is wie se poesie verskeie gemeenskaplike trekke openbaar. Uit die groot verskeidenheid blyk dat sekere temas, soos pyn, aftakeling, dood, liefde, godsdiens asook sosio-kulturele en politieke aktualiteite steeds as die gewildste onderwerpe figureer. 'n Deel van die studie word daaraan gewy om aan te toon hoe hierdie temas in die jonger Afrikaanse poesie vergestalting vind. 'n Terna wat 'n besliste vernuwende aspek in die Afrikaanse poesie bring, is die homoerotiek. Die groter openheid oor homoseksualiteit gee aanleiding tot eksplisiete homoerotiese verse, veral by Joan Hambidge en Johann de Lange. As gevolg van die terroristiese bedrywighede en militere optrede aan die landsgrense gedurende die sewentiger- en tagtigerjare beleef die Afrikaanse literatuur die opkoms van die sogenaamde grensliteratuur as 'n vernuwende aspek van die tema van oorlog en geweld wat van die vorige dekade af oorspoel. Verder word aandag gegee aan die verskynsel van inter(-)tekstualiteit, wat weens die omvang daarvan in die kreatiewe en beskouende literatuur, perspektiefverandering in die Afrikaanse poesie teweegbring. 'n Verdere vernuwende aspek wat aangetoon word, is die wegbeweeg van die beoef ening van die loss er, vryer versvorm van die sestiger- en vroee sewentigerjare na 'n strenger vormbeheer en - dissipline. Die skryf van 'n meer tradisionele tipe poesie word by verskeie digters aangetoon. Die bydrae van tydskrifte en tydskrifverse tot die Afrikaanse poesie word ondersoek. Saam met die verskyning van talle bundels populere poesie, waar die klem veral op die volkskwatryn, sonnet en limerick val, speel die tydskrifte 'n besondere rol om Afrikaanse poesie vir 'n breer leserspubliek toeganklik te maak. Daar word tot die gevolgt~ekking gekom dat die digters van die tagtigerjare die "demokratisering" van die Afrikaanse letterkunde veel verder gevoer het en dat die reikwydte van Afrikaans daardeur uitgebrei is / The rich diversity of Afrikaans poetry of the eighties is displayed by the fact that many of the older poets, such as Eybers, Breytenbach, Cussons, Stockenstrom and Ernst van Heerden, have continued writing poetry, while a large number of newcomers have appeared on the scene. Although these poets far exceed the "generation" boundaries, they are evidently a very literary-aware group of artists, whose work has a number of traits in common. Certain themes, such as pain, decadence, death, love and religion, as well as socio-cultural and political realities, remain popular topics. Part of this study is to show how these themes are expressed in contemporary Afrikaans poetry. A decidedly new aspect of Afrikaans poetry is homo-eroticism. The more open approach to homosexuality gives rise to explicit homo-erotic poems, especially those of Joan Hambidge and Johann de Lange. As a result of terrorist activities and military action on our borders during the seventies and eighties, Afrikaans literature saw the beginning of the so-called border literature as a renewal of the war and violence theme, a relic from the previous decade. Inter(-)textuality is explored, which, due to its influence on creative and reviewing literature, has brought about a change in the perspective of Afrikaans poetry. A further renewal highlighted, is the moving away from the unstructured and freer verse form of the sixties and early 4 seventies to a stricter, controlled and disciplined form. The more traditional type of poetry written by various poets is discussed. The contribution by periodicals and poems in periodicals to Afrikaans poetry is explored. Together with the numerous volumes of popular poetry published, emphasizing the national quatrain, sonnets and limericks, periodicals play an important role in making Afrikaans poetry more accessible to a broader reading public. The conclusion is reached that the poets of the eighties promoted the "democratization" of Afrikaans literature, thereby extending its influence / Afrikaans and Theory of Literature / D. Litt. et Phil. (Afrikaans)

That period in Canada, between 1935 and 1955, which encompasses a pre-war depression, a world war, a post-war period of disillusionment, and the beginning of a time of affluence and intellectual expansion, has left an impressive fund of poetry recording the emotional response of Canadians to the turbulence of these years. At the beginning of this period, the poetry is asserting its independence from the derivative poetry of the earlier Canadian poets, and the end of the period, has already introduced the new mythopoeic mode which dominates the recent literary scene. The major themes of the poetry of this period are directly related to the historical events of the time. In Chapter I, the poetry of social protest is examined in detail. A group of exclusively critical poems, unexperimental in technique, is balanced by a group of more sympathetic ones, employing more of the characteristics of the new poetry. Many poems of social protest indicate an enduring hope for a better future, but those poems dominate this tradition, which incorporate a decidedly revolutionary program. The ultimate solution, however varying the degrees of action may be, is man's own responsibility. Chapter II presents poems inspired by World War II. The initial distrust of the war is replaced by despair. The loss of love, life, security, and meaning is explored in introspective, sensitive poems, as concerned with the emotions on the battlefield, as those in the empty home. The hope for a better future is found in love, courage, or endurance, and the final victory evokes both faith and distrust in its reality. The psychological interest in the individual in a postwar world has produced a number of poems examined in Chapter III. By this time, the poets are already employing new forms with comparative freedom, and this poetry reflects the flexibility demanded by an interest in the complexities of human psychology. The tensions between the need for people, and the need to be alone are as convincingly presented as those between the desire to be loved, and the desire to be independent. The tedium of daily existence creates its peculiar cyclic metaphor, manipulated by many of the poets in a variety of ways. The psychology of abnormality preoccupies a few poems, but a fairly general statement of faith in humanity is characteristic of all of this work. In this chapter, the psychological responses in several of Pratt's poems are examined, along with a brief discussion of his relationship to the rest of the Canadian poetry. Chapter IV examines the poetry which very definitely uses myth as structure, and discusses, very briefly, the mythopoeic poetry after 1955. The favourite structural myth, the fertility cycle, is accompanied by the various aspects of the quest myth. A curiously ironical inversion of the apocalyptic vision indicates that the Canadian mythopoeic poets cannot be expected to be conventional. This study leads to the ultimate conclusion that the Canadian poetry of this twenty year period is a related, but disunified group of fragments, directly connected with the chronological events of the period, but never merging into a clear stream of poetry which flows through these years. The chief reasons for this are explored in the conclusion. A. selective bibliography of the poetry published in Canada between 1935 and 1955 is appended. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Since World War II Canadian literary criticism has tended to be either historical or aesthetic in its emphasis. Little or no interest has been shown in the linguistic approach to criticism; no work has been done on Canadian poets comparable to the writing of Donald David and David Abercrombie on English poets, or of Chatman or Miles on American poets. It is the purpose of this thesis to make a preliminary survey of contemporary Canadian poets from Pratt to Newlove, with particular reference to their style and technique. Special attention will be given to rhythm, and sound, relating Canadian poets' experience to contemporary trends elsewhere. Central to this study is the concept of rhythm in poetry. For the older poets, Pratt and Klein, rhythm was contained in the traditional metres. Raymond Bolster, influenced by the Chicago poets, directed attention to the imagist conception of free verse; and this led, among the poets of the forties, to an increasing interest in the experiments of Pound and Williams. In the fifties, Olson, Duncan, Creeley and Ginsberg began to emphasize the oral and linguistic side of poetry-making. Their influence, first felt in Eastern Canada, has recently gained recognition on the West Coast. The Canadian poets dealt with in this study are those specifically concerned with new experiments in rhythm and sound, and for this reason such poets as Birney and Layton have been excluded. Their eclecticism and frequent changes in style would seem to deserve specialized. research. In this present work, Chapter I defines the terms used and summarizes various critical views on verse techniques, from the Russian Formalists up to the present. Chapter II deals with the forerunners of experimentation, Pratt and Klein. Of the two, Klein was the greater technician, a poet who played with many metrical forms. Both men, however, were deeply concerned with language and its relation to poetry, and this linguistic interest undoubtedly Influenced younger poets. Chapter III examines the imagist movement and in particular its effect on the poet of the thirties, Raymond Knister. Although he used metaphor and symbol, the emphasis which Knister put upon the object— "little things and great"— did great service to the growth of an indigenous, objective movement in Canadian poetry. This movement is the subject of chapters IV and V, in which the work of Souster and Dudek is examined. Chapter VI considers the poetry of Milton Acorn as it relates to the imagism and social commentary already present in the poetry of Souster and Dudek. An unusual aspect of Acorn's verse is its didactic note, expressed in resonant rhythms. Chapter VII examines the style of Alfred Purdy. Although he eschews rhyme, he uses the Iambic stance whenever it suits his purpose. Purdy's own personal rhythm dominates the content and structure of all his poetry. In conclusion Chapter VIII refers to the contemporary scene in British Columbia, attempting to show that the experimental trends from the western States and from eastern Canada have united in the work of Phyllis Webb, James Reid and John Newlove. Each one, though markedly individual, is profoundly conscious of the spoken word, the linguistic collecation of words, and the importance of syntax as a propeller of rhythm and sound. Newlove's poetry is especially singled out as being an 'oral' and 'aural' reflection of his place and time. An Appendix is attached which described the Trager and Smith approach to stress, intonation and juncture, with some critical notes on its application to the art of poetry. Throughout this thesis, the emphasis is on an examination of a poet's style rather than an evaluation of his content. Nonetheless it should be borne in mind that "Sound and meter...must be studied as elements of the totality of a work of art, not in isolation from meaning." An examination of Canadian poetry from Pratt to Purdy must recognize the intimate interplay that exists between thought and expression. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

While English First World War poetry moved from extolling the Victorian versions of chivalric values to the "debunking" realism of some of the soldier poets, Canadian First World War poetry failed to exhibit any such development. Canadian First World War poets write a colonial interpretation of what the English inspirational war poets produced, and they did not express any disillusionment with the military-religious dogma of the war. During the Second World War, some Canadian poets produced poetry of a similar type to that which they wrote celebrating the first. But the war years saw the development of a group of young "modernist" poets who followed up the first modernist movement of the Montreal group and New Provinces, and when these poets wrote about war, the idealization of the conflict was not among their aims. Thus in Canadian war poetry the split between idealization of war and its realistic appraisal does not occur until the Second World War. The realistic appraisal of war on the part of the new poets takes many directions, but their poetry holds in common a refusal to accept any idealized version of the conflict. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

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