Understanding Sharon Olds

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Poetry History & Criticism
Cover of the book Understanding Sharon Olds by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin, University of South Carolina Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin ISBN: 9781611177121
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press Publication: November 30, 2016
Imprint: University of South Carolina Press Language: English
Author: Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
ISBN: 9781611177121
Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
Publication: November 30, 2016
Imprint: University of South Carolina Press
Language: English

Understanding Sharon Olds explores this Pulitzer Prize–winning poet’s major themes, characters, life, and career, including her often-controversial portrayals of family dysfunction, sexuality, and violence against women. In this first book dedicated entirely to the poetry of Sharon Olds, Russell Brickey examines how Olds approaches these difficult and complex topics with pathos and intimate, sometimes provocatively private, details through poetry that not all her critics appreciate. Olds has never shied away from difficult subject matter. Her first award-winning book, Satan Says, is a feminist exploration of gender politics and adolescent discovery. The Father comprises a book-length elegy about cancer. Stag’s Leap, Olds’s Pulitzer Prize–winning volume, is a surprisingly tender look at divorce in modern American culture. Extremely personal, her poems often deal with the victories and contradictions of being a woman in the United States during a time when the country is often involved in racial upheavals and military conflicts overseas. She investigates the victories and contradictions of being a wife and mother during the era of feminism, as one of our most honest, most overt poets of female sexuality and its relationship to family life and its place within the history of humanity. Brickey organizes each chapter around a theme or a persona within Olds’s cast of characters. These include poems dedicated to mothers, fathers, children, and the arc of history. Through his close readings, Brickey shows how and where Olds has expanded the tradition of confessional poetry (literature that deals with psychology, family, love, and sexuality), a term Olds disdains but nevertheless expanded into commentary about the human condition in all its paradoxes.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Understanding Sharon Olds explores this Pulitzer Prize–winning poet’s major themes, characters, life, and career, including her often-controversial portrayals of family dysfunction, sexuality, and violence against women. In this first book dedicated entirely to the poetry of Sharon Olds, Russell Brickey examines how Olds approaches these difficult and complex topics with pathos and intimate, sometimes provocatively private, details through poetry that not all her critics appreciate. Olds has never shied away from difficult subject matter. Her first award-winning book, Satan Says, is a feminist exploration of gender politics and adolescent discovery. The Father comprises a book-length elegy about cancer. Stag’s Leap, Olds’s Pulitzer Prize–winning volume, is a surprisingly tender look at divorce in modern American culture. Extremely personal, her poems often deal with the victories and contradictions of being a woman in the United States during a time when the country is often involved in racial upheavals and military conflicts overseas. She investigates the victories and contradictions of being a wife and mother during the era of feminism, as one of our most honest, most overt poets of female sexuality and its relationship to family life and its place within the history of humanity. Brickey organizes each chapter around a theme or a persona within Olds’s cast of characters. These include poems dedicated to mothers, fathers, children, and the arc of history. Through his close readings, Brickey shows how and where Olds has expanded the tradition of confessional poetry (literature that deals with psychology, family, love, and sexuality), a term Olds disdains but nevertheless expanded into commentary about the human condition in all its paradoxes.

More books from University of South Carolina Press

Cover of the book You Can't Padlock an Idea by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Understanding Etheridge Knight by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Focus on Playwrights by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book A Clear View of the Southern Sky by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book In Dogs We Trust by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book The Day the Johnboat Went up the Mountain by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Taking Root by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Stage Money by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book The Consequences of Loyalism by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Understanding Gary Shteyngart by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Editorial Bodies by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Soon by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Maternal Metaphors of Power in African American Women's Literature by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book The Rhetoric of Mao Zedong by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
Cover of the book Rethinking Islamic Studies by Russell Brickey, Linda Wagner-Martin
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy