This concise, perceptive book makes a valuable contribution to understanding modern poetry through the discipline of anthropology. Heuston (English, The Citadel) has chosen authors identified with specific regions (Ireland for Yeats and Heaney, New England for Frost, the South for Robert Penn Warren) and shows how the regions are not neutral backgrounds but dynamic constructs. The approach transcends the usual notions of regionalism and works especially well for Frost and Warren. Indeed, no one writing on Warren in the future can ignore Heuston's understanding of the subtle, conflicted notions of the South in this poet. Heuston is insightful on Warren's long poem Brother to Dragons, but even more interesting is his brilliant analysis of Warren's writings on race in the South. He shows that Frost's New England is a very complex notion. The cultural analysis and literary insight are excellent throughout, and the author uses an anthropological vocabulary with clarity. The lack of a final summation is jarring: the book ends abruptly. Bibliographical references come through the notes, not the most convenient form of documentation. A must-have book. Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. - CHOICE, B. Almon, University of Alberta
It's always exciting when a gifted scholar defies the boundaries between disciplines. Heuston is exactly this kind of scholar, and his study of modern poetry in terms of modern ethnography opens doors into the dark, illuminating the work of several of our finest modern and contemporary poets: Yeats, Frost, Warren, and Heaney. This is an important work of criticism, one that rises above the crowd of books about books. Heuston asserts the primacy of writing here, and he does so within a context that shows remarkable courage and foresight. Jay Parini, author of Robert Frost: A Life and Why Poetry Matters
'In Modern Poetry and Ethnography, Heuston not only puts a welcome emphasis upon ethnography's impact upon literature (reversing the more common contemporary trend of addressing the 'literary' in ethnography), but he also in the process provides groundbreaking readings of four formative modern poets Yeats, Frost, Warren, and Heaney. The result is a volume rich in insight, challenging readers to think in new terms about the relation between poetry and ethnography, the canons of these four poets and their relation to each other, and the complication and innovation of regarding poetry in local, regional, national, and global dimensions.' Marc Manganaro, dean, College of Arts and Sciences and professor of English, Gonzaga University