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Overview
Hardy was a poet of ghosts. In his poetry he describes himself as posthumous; as rekindling the cinders of passion; as the guardian of the dead forgotten by history; and as haunted by ghosts, particularly the specter of the lost child (as in the rumor that he fathered a child in the 1860s). Using Derrida, Abraham, and Torok and other theorists, and referring to Victorian debates on materialism, this book investigates ghostliness, historicity, and memory in Hardy's poetry.
Synopsis
Hardy was a poet of ghosts. In his poetry he describes himself as posthumous; as rekindling the cinders of passion; as the guardian of the dead forgotten by history; and as haunted by ghosts, particularly the specter of the lost child (as in the rumor that he fathered a child in the 1860s). Using Derrida, Abraham, and Torok and other theorists, and referring to Victorian debates on materialism, this book investigates ghostliness, historicity, and memory in Hardy's poetry.
Booknews
Armstrong (modern English and American literature, U. of London) argues that the idea of haunting is central to the work of British writer Thomas Hardy (1840-1928). He finds evidence in Hardy's second career as a poet; the phantom of the lost child that permeates his writings; his elegiac writings and intertextual references; and how he thinks about history, language, and consciousness. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)