John Berryman's Public Vision : Relocating the Scene of Disorder

Challenging the confessional labelling of him that has dominated his critical reception and popular perception for decades, the author argues that Berryman (1914-72) had a far greater concern for developments in the public sphere than has previously been acknowledged.

Drawing on published and previously unpublished manuscript sources in poetry and prose, John Berryman's Public Vision offers an original reappraisal of an important twentieth-century American poet's work. Challenging the confessional labelling of him that has dominated his critical reception and popular perception for decades, the book argues that Berryman (1914-72) had a far greater concern for developments in the public sphere than has previously been acknowledged. It reassesses the poet's engagements with W.B. Yeats and Robert Bhain Campbell in the 1940s and offers radical re- contexualisations of Berryman's work from every stage of his career. Concluding with an account of Berryman's influence on contemporary writing on both sides of the Atlantic, John Berryman's Public Vision provides a detailed and comprehensive reconsideration of the poet's achievement in his centenary year.