This timely study offers a radical re-reading of Conrad's work in the light of contemporary theories of masculinity. Drawing on gay studies, feminism, film theory and literary theory, Roberts shows how Conrad's fiction, even as it reflects certain assumptions of its day about the role of men in society, offers striking insights into the instability of the 'masculine'. The book explores the relationship of masculinity with colonialism, modernity, the visual and the body in a wide range of Conrad's major and lesser-known fiction.

The cultural value of poetry is critically examined in this book, from anthologies and academia to film and the internet. Attention is also given to the role of political ideologies and local, national and ethnic identities in the formation of poetic values.With chapters by distinguished critics from both sides of the Atlantic, the book ranges widely over contemporary poetry in America and the British Isles and explores transatlantic connections. Informed by current theoretical debates around ideas of value, the chapters focus these through clear discussion of texts in various media,...

A clear introductory account of the work of Geoffrey Hill, one of the finest but also most complex of contemporary British poets. Geoffrey Hill is widely regarded as one of the finest British poets of our time. His highly distinctive poetry is unrivalled in its historical scope, philosophical depth and rhetorical power, and joins intense ethical seriousness with wit, ambiguity and humour. In his own terms a 'radically traditional poet', Hill combines religious modes of thought with rigorous scepticism and, while insisting on the importance of the past to an understanding of the present,...

This timely study offers a radical re-reading of Conrad's work in the light of contemporary theories of masculinity. Drawing on gay studies, feminism, film theory and literary theory, Roberts shows how Conrad's fiction, even as it reflects certain assumptions of its day about the role of men in society, offers striking insights into the instability of the 'masculine'. The book explores the relationship of masculinity with colonialism, modernity, the visual and the body in a wide range of Conrad's major and lesser-known fiction.

Joseph Conrad is a key figure in modernist fiction, whose innovative work engages with many of the crucial philosophical, moral and political concerns of the twentieth century. This collection of major critical readings of his work is arranged according to the issues which each critic addresses, issues which are of crucial importance, and in many cases remain controversial, within contemporary literary theory and criticism.

Following an opening section on the critical tradition, indicating how the study of Conrad's work has been politicised since the 1970s, there are sections on...