The Wreck of the Fathership
- Submitting institution
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University of Newcastle upon Tyne
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 212500-67694-1282
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
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- Publisher
- Bloodaxe Books
- ISBN
- 9781780375243
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2020
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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-
- Proposed double-weighted
- Yes
- Double-weighted statement
- The Wreck of the Fathership is a substantial (240pp) collection which re-thinks the conventional poetic ‘slim volume’ - a short collection of usually lyrical work, often focussed around a central governing theme. Encompassing a broad range of voices and poetic techniques - Scots and English, free and formal verse, page-based and performance-led material - within a single conceptually consistent volume, The Wreck of the Fathership involves a complex, multi-layered approach across nine sections which reflect on each other structurally.
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The Wreck of the Fathership contains nine sections which reflect on each other literally, in that the first part’s themes are recontextualised by the last, and so on, building to and from the central, titular section. This mirroring also takes place thematically, in that the book sets elegy against satire, and personal lyricism contra public discourse. Thus, the death of the poet’s father is juxtaposed with the patriarchal crises of demagoguery, climate change and Brexit. There is an ironic acknowledgement in its governing symbol of a shipwreck that encompassing such contraries within one book which both promises coherence and threatens catastrophe. At its heart is the symbolic loss of a Dundee lifeboat in 1959, depicted as an act of sacrifice.
The book’s structure imitates this overturned vessel, with the title section as its exposed keel. Civic responsibility is explored further in poems written while Herbert was Dundee Makar, or City Laureate. The volume incorporates both mainstream and experimental procedures, instigating dialogue through the dynamic movement between poems, sequences, and sections. In its attempt to ‘contain multitudes’, the volume is substantially longer than a conventional volume of poetry.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -