Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
Palgrave Macmillan

Confessional Poetry in the Cold War

The Poetics of Doublespeak

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Adam Beardsworth

    1. Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, Canada

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Explores confessional poetry in relation to early Cold War politics and culture in the US
  • Argues that the personal nature of this lyric style reflects the widespread politicized anxiety of the time
  • Focuses on the poets Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, John Berryman and Randall Jarrell

Part of the book series: American Literature Readings in the 21st Century (ALTC)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 89.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 119.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-ix
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction: The Poetics of Doublespeak

    • Adam Beardsworth
    Pages 1-38

  3. “Lack-Land Atoms Split Apart”: Robert Lowell’s Atomic Confessions

    • Adam Beardsworth
    Pages 39-62

  4. The Poetics of Double-Talk: John Berryman’s Dream Songs as Cold War Testimonials

    • Adam Beardsworth
    Pages 63-88

  5. Fastening a New Skin: Anne Sexton, Self-Help, and the Illness of Responsibility

    • Adam Beardsworth
    Pages 89-116

  6. Toward a Poetics of Terror: Sylvia Plath and the Instant of Death

    • Adam Beardsworth
    Pages 117-146

  7. New Critical Conspiracy Theory: Randall Jarrell and the Poetics of Dissent

    • Adam Beardsworth
    Pages 147-171

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 173-186
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book explores how confessional poets in the 1950s and 1960s US responded to a Cold War political climate that used the threat of nuclear disaster and communist infiltration as affective tools for the management of public life. In an era that witnessed the state-sanctioned repression of civil liberties, poets such as Robert Lowell, John Berryman, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and Randall Jarrell adopted what has often been considered a politically benign confessional style. Although confessional writers have been criticized for emphasizing private turmoil in an era of public crisis, examining their work in relation to the political and affective environment of the Cold War US demonstrates their unique ability to express dissent while averting surveillance. For these poets, writing the fear and anxiety of life in the bomb’s shadow was a form of poetic doublespeak that critiqued the impact of an affective Cold War politics without naming names.




Reviews

“Confessional Poetry in the Cold War is structured well … . Scholars from literary studies, American studies, and feminist surveillance studies, as well as surveillance researchers more generally, will benefit from reading Confessional Poetry in the Cold War. Those researching at the intersection of mental health and surveillance will find Beardsworth’s monograph particularly useful as this is a recurring theme explored throughout.” (Jade Hinchliffe, Surveillance & Society, Vol. 20 (3), 2022)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, Canada

    Adam Beardsworth

About the author

Adam Beardsworth is a professor of English at Memorial University’s Grenfell Campus, Canada, where he teaches contemporary literature and critical theory. He is the author of numerous articles and chapters on US and Canadian poetry and is a past-president of the Canadian Association for American Studies. He lives in Steady Brook, Newfoundland.



Bibliographic Information

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation