Book description
In 'Ballad of a Thin Man' in 1965, Dylan launched a withering attack on
the myopic critic of culture:'Something is happening here But you don't
know what it is, Do you, Mister Jones?' Yet Dylan himself has been a
subject of consuming interest to many of the most significant poets and
critics over the last thirty years. It has even been argued that he is
the finest living user of the English language - true to his genius
through all his changes of stance, constantly exploring the state of his
soul as he dons the cloak of lover, clown, cowboy, priest, bleak prophet
of doom. In this collection, poets and professors explore different
aspects of Dylan's work, writing about his impact on their own
intellectual and artistic lives, as well as his wider influence.
Contributors are Simon Armitage, Richard Brown, Christopher Butler,
Bryan Cheyette, Patrick Crotty, Aidan Day, Mark Ford, Lavinia Greenlaw,
Daniel Karlin, Paul Muldoon, Nicholas Roe, Pamela Thurschwell, Susan
Wheeler and Sean Wilentz. Serious Dylan criticism is rare and these
fascinating, specially commissioned essays are rigorous and challenging,
at once a celebration and a questioning of a powerful talent, the genius
Leonard Cohen called 'the Picasso of song'. Neil Corcoran is Professor
of English at the University of St Andrews.
