Duffy and Larkin Context Flashcards
What about Duffy’s life may explain her preoccupation with identity?
Three- quaters Irish, Born in scotland and brought up predominately in England - which may explain her concern with identity
What happened when Duffy was 6?
She moved to stafford and much of her concern with childhood alienation derived from her experience of being uprooted from and moving to a very different culture
What is the significance of the mean time anthology name?
- echo of greenwhich mean time - a universal measure of time -> themes of the poem have universal relevance
- simply linking all of her poems to the passage of time.
When was Mean time Published?
1993
What changes were occurring to education in Duffy’s youth?
British state schools had been divided into grammar school which can an academic education to children who passed 11+ and comprehensive schools.
Duffy as a feminist rewrites stories that had deeply embedded anti-female prejudices?
Duffy rewrites Havisham, giving a sense of agency and power of her story
What does Zeitgeist mean?
Zeitgeist is the spirit , mood or atmosphere of a period of time.
> Cultural References to the 1960s and through capturing the grammar school culture and meritocracy ideal of the 60 Captain could be described as zeitgeist poem.
What is 1960’s Britain associated with ?
1960s Britain is associated with a rise in youth , and popular culture , as well as civil rights and protest movements. The 2nd wave of feminism broke out during the 1960s , and was associated with Sexual liberation and freedom.
What are some examples of Duffy’s dramatic monologues ?
Havisham , and The Captain of the 1964 Top of the Form team
Did Duffy go to a convent school?
St Josephs Convent School and Duffy was raised as a Roman Catholic
What has it been stated that Duffy does to her life and poetry?
It has been stated that Duffy uses most of her own life within poetry
Where was Larkin born?
In coventry
What was Larkin’s mother and Father like?
Father was a more dominant influence, with Eva being quite a nervous, passive person in comparison
What literary trend did Larkin become associated with
The Trend became known as ‘the movement’ and it’s desire was to return to traditional forms in verse and avoid the experimentation and obscurity of expression found in much pre-war British poetry.
Arundel Tomb context:
The inspiration for ‘An Arundel Tomb’ came during a New Year holiday in early 1956, when Larkin visited Chichester Cathedral with his long-term partner, Monica Jones.
Love songs in age context:
the poem was written after a Christmas visit to his widowed mother 10 years this point - his father died when he was young.
Home is so sad context
1958, Larkin returned to visit Mum.
Wild oats context
Larkin met a woman called Jane Exall (the ‘bosomy English rose’) and her friend, Ruth Bowman (‘her friend in specs ).
Monica Jones
when working univeristy leciester her met - lasted until his death. got in a relationship with maeve and mackereth simultaneously with monica jones
what did Amis Larkins friend say about larkin’s perspective?
he was one who found the universe a black and hostile and recognised very clearly the disagreeable realities of human life.
Nostalgia in Captain poem
Then, he ‘lived in a kind of fizzing hope’, the past-tense phrasing suggesting excitement that was never truly realised. Indeed, his crystal clear recall of the songs, tastes, smells and vivid sights of the past (‘pink pavements/that girls chalked on, in a blue evening’) all contribute to the sense that his present is a flat and nebulous disappointment in comparison.
Unhappiness in captain and miss havisham
While the captain of the Top of the Form team and Miss Havisham are made miserable by ‘mean time’ moving on without them,
What was Larkin’s religious belief?
Aethist
post war context (larkin)
> Increasing urbanisation and the increasing number of industrial centres (due to the new towns act 1946) resulted in the loss of rural England
Larkin used his poetry to portray the changing social climate of the 1950s and elicit a sense of regret/tragedy/lament for the lost countryside
