Edna Longley
Encyclopedia
Edna Longley is an Irish literary critic and cultural commentator specialising in modern Irish and British poetry.
Now Professor Emerita at Queen's University Belfast, as a lecturer and later Professor of English at Queen's, Longley exerted a significant moderating and enabling influence on the literary and political culture of Northern Ireland both during and since the years of The Troubles
. While she was a teacher at the Queen's University, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry was founded. She gained particular renown in Ireland for her public criticism of "depredatory ideologies" both in their political and the literary aspects. In her Lip pamphlet From Cathleen to Anorexia (1990) she was scathingly critical of the identification of feminism with Irish nationalism. At the Yeats Summer School in 1993 she attacked The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing for 'a propensity to censorship and an obsession with colonialism', developing those arguments in her 1994 collection of essays The Living Stream: Literature and Revisionism in Ireland, an extended critique of nationalism in Irish writing. She has also been one of the foremost scholars in Edward Thomas
studies, publishing two editions of his poetry (1973 and 2008) and one of his prose (1981), and is one of the editors of the planned Oxford University Press series, Edward Thomas: The Essential Prose. Writing in Dublin's Sunday Business Post, Seamus Heaney
called her 2008 Annotated Collected Poems the "definite new edition of Edward Thomas...a crowning achievement by Thomas's best advocate".
Born in Cork in 1940, the daughter of mathematics professor T.S. Broderick and a Scottish Presbyterian mother, she was baptised a Catholic but brought up in "the Anglican compromise" (Church of Ireland). She studied at Trinity College Dublin during the 1960s, where her contemporaries included the poets Michael Longley
, Derek Mahon and Eavan Boland
. After her marriage to Michael Longley, she moved with him to Belfast and obtained her first teaching post at Queen's University Belfast. From 1989 to 1994 she was Academic Director of the John Hewitt Summer School. Trinity College Dublin gave her an honorary doctorate in 2003.
Now Professor Emerita at Queen's University Belfast, as a lecturer and later Professor of English at Queen's, Longley exerted a significant moderating and enabling influence on the literary and political culture of Northern Ireland both during and since the years of The Troubles
The Troubles
The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...
. While she was a teacher at the Queen's University, the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry was founded. She gained particular renown in Ireland for her public criticism of "depredatory ideologies" both in their political and the literary aspects. In her Lip pamphlet From Cathleen to Anorexia (1990) she was scathingly critical of the identification of feminism with Irish nationalism. At the Yeats Summer School in 1993 she attacked The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing for 'a propensity to censorship and an obsession with colonialism', developing those arguments in her 1994 collection of essays The Living Stream: Literature and Revisionism in Ireland, an extended critique of nationalism in Irish writing. She has also been one of the foremost scholars in Edward Thomas
Edward Thomas (poet)
Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh writer of prose and poetry. He is commonly considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. Already an accomplished writer, Thomas turned to poetry only in 1914...
studies, publishing two editions of his poetry (1973 and 2008) and one of his prose (1981), and is one of the editors of the planned Oxford University Press series, Edward Thomas: The Essential Prose. Writing in Dublin's Sunday Business Post, Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...
called her 2008 Annotated Collected Poems the "definite new edition of Edward Thomas...a crowning achievement by Thomas's best advocate".
Born in Cork in 1940, the daughter of mathematics professor T.S. Broderick and a Scottish Presbyterian mother, she was baptised a Catholic but brought up in "the Anglican compromise" (Church of Ireland). She studied at Trinity College Dublin during the 1960s, where her contemporaries included the poets Michael Longley
Michael Longley
Michael Longley, CBE is a Northern Irish poet from Belfast.-Life and career:Longley was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and subsequently read Classics at Trinity College, Dublin, where he edited Icarus...
, Derek Mahon and Eavan Boland
Eavan Boland
-Biography:Boland's father, Frederick Boland, was a career diplomat and her mother, Frances Kelly, was a noted post-expressionist painter. She was born in Dublin in 1944. At the age of six, Boland's father was appointed Irish Ambassador to the United Kingdom; the family followed him to London,...
. After her marriage to Michael Longley, she moved with him to Belfast and obtained her first teaching post at Queen's University Belfast. From 1989 to 1994 she was Academic Director of the John Hewitt Summer School. Trinity College Dublin gave her an honorary doctorate in 2003.
Literary criticism
- Poetry in the Wars (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 1986) - Louis MacNeice: A Study (Faber & Faber, 1988)
- From Cathleen to Anorexia: The Breakdown of Ireland, Lip pamphlet (Attic Press, Dublin, 1990)
- The Living Stream: Literature and Revisionism in Ireland (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 1994) - Gender and the Irish Identity (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 1996) - Poetry and Posterity (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 2000) - Multiculturalism: The View from the Two Irelands (with Declan KiberdDeclan KiberdDeclan Kiberd is an Irish writer and scholar. He is known for his literary criticism of Irish literature in Irish and English, and his contributions to public cultural life....
) (Cork University PressCork University PressCork University Press is a publisher located in Cork, Ireland that was founded in 1925. They publish under their own imprint and two others: Attic and Atrium....
, 2001) - ‘The Great War, History and the English Lyric', in Vincent Sherry (editor), The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the First World War (Cambridge University PressCambridge University PressCambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII in 1534, it is the world's oldest publishing house, and the second largest university press in the world...
, 2005)
As editor
- Edward ThomasEdward Thomas (poet)Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh writer of prose and poetry. He is commonly considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. Already an accomplished writer, Thomas turned to poetry only in 1914...
: Poems and Last Poems (MacmillanMacmillan PublishersMacmillan Publishers Ltd, also known as The Macmillan Group, is a privately held international publishing company owned by Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It has offices in 41 countries worldwide and operates in more than thirty others.-History:...
, 1973) - The Selected James Simmons (Blackstaff Press, 1978)
- The Selected Paul Durcan (Blackstaff Press, 1982)
- A Language Not to Be Betrayed: Selected Prose of Edward Thomas (Carcanet PressCarcanet PressCarcanet Press is a publisher, primarily of poetry, based in the United Kingdom and founded in 1969 by Michael Schmidt.Carcanet Press is now in its fourth decade. In 2000 it was named the Sunday Times millennium Small Publisher of the Year...
, 1981). - Across a Roaring Hill: The Protestant Imagination in Modern Ireland, with Gerald Dawe (Blackstaff Press, 1985)
- Marin SorescuMarin Sorescu- Biography :Born to a family of farmworkers in Bulzeşti, Dolj County, Sorescu graduated from the primary school in his home village. After that he went to the Buzesti Brothers High School in Craiova, after which he was transferred to the Predeal Military School. His final education was at the...
: The Biggest Egg in the World (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 1987) - Dorothy HewettDorothy HewettDorothy Coade Hewett was an Australian feminist poet, novelist, librettist and playwright. She was also a member of the Communist Party of Australia, though she clashed on many occasions with the party's leadership.-Early life:Hewett was born in Perth and was brought up on a sheep and wheat farm...
: Alice in Wormland: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 1990) - Culture in Ireland: Division or Diversity?: proceedings of the Cultures of Ireland Group Conference, 27–28 September 1991 (Institute of Irish Studies, 1991)
- Yeats Annual No.12: That Accusing Eye - Yeats and His Irish Readers (co-editor) (PalgravePalgrave MacmillanPalgrave Macmillan is an international academic and trade publishing company, headquartered in Basingstoke, Hampshire, England, United Kingdom and with offices in New York, Melbourne, Sydney, Hong Kong, Delhi, Johannesburg. It was created in 2000 when St...
, 1996) - The Bloodaxe Book of 20th Century Poetry from Britain and Ireland (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 2000) - Ireland (Ulster) Scotland: Concepts, Contexts, Comparisons (co-editor) (Cló Ollscoil na Banríona, Belfast, 2003)
- Edward ThomasEdward Thomas (poet)Philip Edward Thomas was an Anglo-Welsh writer of prose and poetry. He is commonly considered a war poet, although few of his poems deal directly with his war experiences. Already an accomplished writer, Thomas turned to poetry only in 1914...
: The Annotated Collected Poems (Bloodaxe BooksBloodaxe BooksBloodaxe Books is a British publishing house specialising in poetry.-History:It was founded in 1978 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Neil Astley, who is still editor and managing director. Joined in 1982 by chairman Simon Thirsk, Astley was later awarded an honorary D.Litt by Newcastle University in 1995...
, 2008)