Publication detail

The Moral Geography of Louis MacNeice's Letters from the 'Arctic Gate'

Authors: Vít Ladislav

Year: 2021

Type of publication: ostatní - přednáška nebo poster

Publisher name: Slezská Univerzita v Opavě

Page from-to: nestránkováno

Titles:

Language	Name	Abstract	Keywords
eng	The Moral Geography of Louis MacNeice's Letters from the 'Arctic Gate'	Early twentieth-century modernity saw crisis, unemployment and poverty but also unprecedented growth of mobility, expansion of leisure culture, travelling and, consequently, travel writing. The prime destination for British writers in the early 1930s was the South, mainly the Mediterranean. Amidst such southern ‘gaze’, Louis MacNeice and W. H. Auden went to Iceland. The result was Letters from Iceland (1937), a travel book fascinating some while irritating other influential critics of their time. This presentation will examine MacNeice’s contributions to the volume with special emphasis on the moral aspects of his going North and his self-conscious poetics of resistance. MacNeice’s texts show an explicit effort to rationalize his motives for visiting Iceland as his journey took place while the parlous interwar situation was looming in the background.	Louis MacNeice; W. H. Auden; Iceland; insularity; islandness; north; landscape; Letters from Iceland

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