Publisher's Synopsis
Born of Irish parents in Glasgow in 1927, Pearse Hutchinson moved to Dublin in 1932, and was educated at Synge Street and University College Dublin. Hutchinson's first poems were published in The Bell in 1945, and, since then, he has published over a dozen separate collections of poems in English, Irish, and in translation for several European languages. This is the first collection of critical essays on this internationally respected poet, who has played a vital role in Irish poetic culture for over six decades. Reflecting the astonishing linguistic and cultural range of Hutchinson's interests and projects as a writer, Reading Pearse Hutchinson gathers together a diverse group of scholars who engage with the varied aspects of the poet's achievements. The book explores Hutchinson's interests in Irish and European history and politics, as well as his examinations of sexuality and the body, music, the aesthetics of memory, and the poetics of friendship.