Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause?
International audience This article focuses on the last chapter of W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice’s 1937 travel narrative: Letters from Iceland, written entirely in terza rima and entitled “Their Last Will and Testament”. A humorous parody of a legal document, the 23-page-long poem consists of an inv...
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fttriple:oai:gotriple.eu:10670/1.nkhqdw 2023-05-15T16:47:52+02:00 Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause? Greaves, Sara Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) Aix Marseille Université (AMU) 2015-06-01 https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01311162 en eng HAL CCSD Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone hal-01311162 10670/1.nkhqdw https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01311162 undefined Hyper Article en Ligne - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société ISSN: 1638-1718 EISSN: 1638-1718 E-rea - Revue électronique d’études sur le monde anglophone E-rea - Revue électronique d’études sur le monde anglophone, Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone, 2015 travel literature burlesque the Thirties existential Angst Terza rima Dante exile poetic quest relig litt Journal Article https://vocabularies.coar-repositories.org/resource_types/c_6501/ 2015 fttriple 2023-01-22T17:47:09Z International audience This article focuses on the last chapter of W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice’s 1937 travel narrative: Letters from Iceland, written entirely in terza rima and entitled “Their Last Will and Testament”. A humorous parody of a legal document, the 23-page-long poem consists of an inventory of miscellaneous bequests and their legatees, some of whom are prominent figures of the British establishment, considered against the sombre backdrop of the mounting threat of Nazism. The second part of the article deals more specifically with Auden, and the text is discussed in relation to Auden’s poetry as a whole as a rewriting of Dante’s Inferno, including his system of ‘contrapasso’ in the treatment of sinners, thereby shedding light on the poet’s quest for a language of (spiritual) healing. While the Iceland trip was an opportunity for Auden and MacNeice to remove themselves physically from the European theatre and observe it from outside, it also brought a near-the-bone reminder of what seemed to be already lost in terms of English poetry’s audience and role, and an experience of exile and alienation. Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland Unknown Rima ENVELOPE(-45.400,-45.400,-60.633,-60.633) |
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English |
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travel literature burlesque the Thirties existential Angst Terza rima Dante exile poetic quest relig litt |
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travel literature burlesque the Thirties existential Angst Terza rima Dante exile poetic quest relig litt Greaves, Sara Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause? |
topic_facet |
travel literature burlesque the Thirties existential Angst Terza rima Dante exile poetic quest relig litt |
description |
International audience This article focuses on the last chapter of W.H. Auden and Louis MacNeice’s 1937 travel narrative: Letters from Iceland, written entirely in terza rima and entitled “Their Last Will and Testament”. A humorous parody of a legal document, the 23-page-long poem consists of an inventory of miscellaneous bequests and their legatees, some of whom are prominent figures of the British establishment, considered against the sombre backdrop of the mounting threat of Nazism. The second part of the article deals more specifically with Auden, and the text is discussed in relation to Auden’s poetry as a whole as a rewriting of Dante’s Inferno, including his system of ‘contrapasso’ in the treatment of sinners, thereby shedding light on the poet’s quest for a language of (spiritual) healing. While the Iceland trip was an opportunity for Auden and MacNeice to remove themselves physically from the European theatre and observe it from outside, it also brought a near-the-bone reminder of what seemed to be already lost in terms of English poetry’s audience and role, and an experience of exile and alienation. |
author2 |
Laboratoire d'Etudes et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) Aix Marseille Université (AMU) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Greaves, Sara |
author_facet |
Greaves, Sara |
author_sort |
Greaves, Sara |
title |
Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause? |
title_short |
Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause? |
title_full |
Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause? |
title_fullStr |
Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Auden and MacNeice: Their Last Will and Testament – Thirties Classic or Existential Pause? |
title_sort |
auden and macneice: their last will and testament – thirties classic or existential pause? |
publisher |
HAL CCSD |
publishDate |
2015 |
url |
https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01311162 |
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ENVELOPE(-45.400,-45.400,-60.633,-60.633) |
geographic |
Rima |
geographic_facet |
Rima |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_source |
Hyper Article en Ligne - Sciences de l'Homme et de la Société ISSN: 1638-1718 EISSN: 1638-1718 E-rea - Revue électronique d’études sur le monde anglophone E-rea - Revue électronique d’études sur le monde anglophone, Laboratoire d’Études et de Recherche sur le Monde Anglophone, 2015 |
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hal-01311162 10670/1.nkhqdw https://hal-amu.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01311162 |
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