Both John Milton and Andrew Marvell have been revaluated in recent years. Yet this is the first sustained scholarly work to compare the two great seventeenth-century poets. In his new book, which stands as the culmination of a distinguished academic career, Warren Chernaik examines the relationship of the two writers and their complex responses to their troubled times. The poets were close friends, yet the trajectory of their careers and their posthumous reputations differed significantly. As well as taking an active part in the major political and religious upheavals of their times, both poets engaged seriously with classical, Christian, and humanist thought. Combining close readings of their poetry and prose with detailed consideration of historical and intellectual context, Chernaik sheds fresh light on the enduring works of poets whose words still resonate strongly with today’s readers.

This chapter conceives of Black Lives Matter-era poetry of mourning as forms of elegiac activism through which contemporary Black poets, including Lauren Alleyne, Mahogany Browne, Sequoia Maner, darlene anita scott, Nate Marshall, and Jericho Brown, achieve interconnected aims of refusing the naturalization of police and vigilante murders while making legible the ecology of US racism and of opening up a space to affirm Black being – or what Kevin Quashie terms “Black aliveness” – so that they participate in the antiracist struggle without being defined solely by it. Examining the work of poets who have been part of artistic resistance via #Blackpoetsspeakout videos as well as that of those who are better known for their published collections, this chapter also shows the diverse range of available forms and modes Black poets avail themselves of as they engage in elegiac activism and the Black world-building that it entails. Ultimately, this chapter emphasizes the durability of poetry in general and elegy in particular as intergenerational vehicles that link the poets and racial-justice movements of decades past to the pressing concerns of the present as well as to Black futures.

This chapter examines the representation of militarized modernity in American literature through three Korean immigrant writers: Richard E. Kim, Ty Pak, and Henz Insu Fenkl. Initially developed to explain anticommunist statecraft and gendered citizenship in South Korea during its military regimes, militarized modernity proves a productive term for exploring the culture of the migratory circuit between South Korea and the United States. By reading Korean immigrant writers through the lens of militarized modernity, the chapter goes against the critical tendency to view militarized modernity as exclusive to countries in the developing world. Instead, it argues that Korean immigrant writings show militarized modernity as already a part of American literature by foregrounding the traces of their own context of production that register both US imperialism and the ambiguous, changing status of South Korea from occupied country to ally, and finally, to sub-empire.

Both John Milton and Andrew Marvell have been revaluated in recent years. Yet this is the first sustained scholarly work to compare the two great seventeenth-century poets. In his new book, which stands as the culmination of a distinguished academic career, Warren Chernaik examines the relationship of the two writers and their complex responses to their troubled times. The poets were close friends, yet the trajectory of their careers and their posthumous reputations differed significantly. As well as taking an active part in the major political and religious upheavals of their times, both poets engaged seriously with classical, Christian, and humanist thought. Combining close readings of their poetry and prose with detailed consideration of historical and intellectual context, Chernaik sheds fresh light on the enduring works of poets whose words still resonate strongly with today’s readers.

Phillis Wheatley Peters’s America was both a place and an idea, a reality and an aspiration. Through her writings she transformed herself from being a victim in the actual America into a voice for the America she envisioned. Wheatley Peters’ works should be considered diachronically, recognizing the significance of when she wrote what and to whom, rather than synchronically, as if her positions were unchanging over time. Anyone who attempts to identify her political beliefs must consider how free she was to express them, as well as whether the voice we hear is that of the author, rather than that of a persona she has created. Her image of America evolved radically during the 1770s, as did her vision of her place and role in it. The many ways in which Wheatley Peters subtly and indirectly confronted the issues of racism, sexism, and slavery are increasingly appreciated. Her ambition to be recognized as America’s unofficial poet laureate should be undisputed. Considered a remarkable curiosity during her lifetime, Wheatley Peters is now recognized as a major historical, literary, and political figure, whose significance transcends her ethnic, gender, and national identities.

Both John Milton and Andrew Marvell have been revaluated in recent years. Yet this is the first sustained scholarly work to compare the two great seventeenth-century poets. In his new book, which stands as the culmination of a distinguished academic career, Warren Chernaik examines the relationship of the two writers and their complex responses to their troubled times. The poets were close friends, yet the trajectory of their careers and their posthumous reputations differed significantly. As well as taking an active part in the major political and religious upheavals of their times, both poets engaged seriously with classical, Christian, and humanist thought. Combining close readings of their poetry and prose with detailed consideration of historical and intellectual context, Chernaik sheds fresh light on the enduring works of poets whose words still resonate strongly with today’s readers.

This chapter defines Black feminist poetics as being a "miracle" rather than a "luxury" in that poetic articulation becomes a way to confront how ideas of US citizenship and personhood are predicated on positing Black women as a necessary "rapeable other." It identifes key moments of collaboration and key poetic premises – non-hierarchy, survival, poetry as essential to self-concept and imagining alternative social relations – by which Black women poets have articulated critical alternatives to social norms in order to capture the beauty of their own being.

The efforts among dozens of editors to reprint and thus circulate compositions by Black poets in anthologies across the decades constitute an extraordinary ongoing saga in the production of African American literature. Without collections bringing together large groups of Black poets in the pages of individual books, the view of an interconnected Black literary tradition may have been far more difficult to realize. Further, the presence of Black poets in primarily white anthologies diversified the racial and cultural hegemony of those collections and extended the readership of African American writers.

The book’s challenge is to carve out a literary-critical approach that brings all sides of Lawrence’s verbal art forms together as a recognisable whole, but not by the traditional means of defining an underlying philosophy. Instead a bio-bibliographically informed approach traces Lawrence’s developing imaginary, his unfolding intellectual project, along highways and byways alike until his broader oeuvre-in-process becomes the object of study. The book analyses work-versions, where significant developments are materially witnessed, rather than confining attention to the works’ published forms. Zooming in to focus on changed patterns and wordings on this manuscript or that typescript is followed by a pulling back to survey the wider patterning and stylistic shift. Cross-currents from his reading, marriage and friendships circulated through his contemporaneous writings in all its forms. This shifting repertoire of image and idea was increasingly organised by a structural habit of projecting polarised fundamentals into staged encounters with his subject matter. A text-gambler, Lawrence would trust this performative approach to dictate the movement of idea and attitude.

Chapter 5 assesses the patronage and use of books in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. The following case studies are discussed: two earlier Anglo-Saxon prayerbooks (the Book of Cerne and Book of Nunnaminster) to which new material was added, a new volume of Latin hagiographies (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 5574), and a Carolingian manuscript to which several additions were made by English-trained scribes (London, British Library, Cotton Vespasian D. xiv, fols. 170–224). Engagement with these books took place in diverse settings, some of which were more informal than one might expect. The motivations for such activity are assessed too. These case studies pave the way for a holistic assessment of the contemporary manuscript corpus. Physical qualities, texts and languages are considered, as are the possible settings in which books were produced and used. Attention is drawn to the evidence for female book use, and to the importance of international networks. Continuities with earlier decades are acknowledged, as are new developments, including a more pronounced association between books and bishops. The chapter closes with a call to remain open-minded about this book culture’s range of social contexts and participants.

The 104-year-long Rana regime (1846–1951) prevented writers from writing for lay people, let alone the voices of the marginalized or janajatis, Indigenous people in this context. Writing remained a practice in praise of the Rana regime or the people in power. Literature became the genre belonging to societal elites. Social change through writing became a far cry from reality. Playfulness and freshness in writing – which could be obtained through the voices of the marginalized or through the projection of human relationships and their interactive minds – remained a distant shore. Krishna Lal Subba was imprisoned for nine years for writing a book, Makaiko Kheti (1920), meaning the cultivation of maize (Pandey 2012). Writing was fully censored. It would be a dangerous matter to attempt to write in a regime that did not want the lay people becoming aware and educated, and they always remained as “others” or marginalized. Freedom of literary expression was strictly limited by the Rana government (Hutt 1990). If anyone published a book without the Gorkha Language Publication Committee's approval, the publisher would be fined 50 Nepali rupees, and they would be punished if the book did not meet the Committee's guidelines (Acharya 2022).

However, toward the end of the Rana regime, “some writers had started rejecting the classical conventions of the older tradition, others adapted traditional genres and styles to express new concerns” (Hutt 1990: 5). Laxmi Prasad Devkota's “Muna Madan” (1936) has remained immensely popular over the years, establishing itself as a cornerstone of Nepali literature. It transcends genres, becoming a literary and jhyaure masterpiece, deeply resonating with the masses. Despite its widespread appeal, the content candidly delves into the lives of marginalized communities, shedding light on the “other” and offering a vivid portrayal of society and sociocultural milieu during that era.

This chapter considers how the mainstream success of contemporary African American poets recalls the concerns about public pressure to conform at the expense of expressing Black cultural heritage in verse that Langston Hughes explained well in his 1926 essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Using interviews with the poets and analysis of their poems, the chapter traces the ambivalent reception these poets have perceived and articulates the senses of heritage and innovation by which they maintain their integrity. It concludes that, while Hughes’s concerns remain relevant, contemporary African American poets in the national spotlight have achieved their prominence through a well-earned confidence.