The Poetry and Journalism of James Fenton

• Thesis title in Czech: Poezie a žurnalistika Jamese Fentona
• Thesis title in English: The Poetry and Journalism of James Fenton
• Key words: James Fenton|Journalism|Poetry
• English key words: James Fenton|Journalism|Poetry
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2021/2022
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: doc. Justin Quinn, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 08.03.2022
• Date of assignment: 08.03.2022
• Administrator's approval: not processed yet
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 23.03.2022
• Date and time of defence: 02.02.2023 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 13.01.2023
• Date of proceeded defence: 02.02.2023
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: Stephan Delbos, M.F.A., Ph.D.

Guidelines

My thesis concerns the work of the poet and journalist James Fenton. I will examine his work in terms of the interrelations between his poetry and his journalism, also discussing the historical and political situations which produced them. As both Fenton’s journalism and some of his most interesting poetry concern war and political upheaval in Southeast Asia, this seems like an obvious approach. However, I will not entirely confine myself entirely to Fenton’s poetry as it relates to Southeast Asia, but will also consider his other poetic work and its place within his work as a whole.
I will pay particular attention to questions of form and also to the fraught ethical problems associated with the kind of journalism Fenton undertook and produced. There are two readings of Fenton’s journalism. The first, that of Douglas Kerr, is that Fenton refused to write as a journalist normally would and shared his ignorance with the reader in an attempt to avoid an orientalist perspective. On the other hand, Benedict Anderson views Fenton as a “political tourist” whose ignorance is a failing and who had ultimately gone to Southeast Asia in order to bring back the marketable commodity of eyewitness accounts of historical events. I will attempt to chart a course between these positions: while each has merits, the former is perhaps too charitable, the latter perhaps too cynical.
Similar questions also arise with Fenton’s poetry related to war in Southeast Asia. For example, in some of his poems Fenton takes the position of a participant in events that in his journalism he only observes. Clearly poetry allows for a more direct imaginative involvement, which has its uses, but this also comes with certain ethical risks. It will be useful here to briefly compare Fenton’s poetic works on these subjects with those of other poets including those from Southeast Asia. Another point of comparison will be the work of other journalists and poets on related topics, an obvious example being Auden and Isherwood’s Journey to a War. I will also consider the formal aspects of this poetry, which will in turn necessitate a wider discussion of Fenton’s position as a poet within the ecosystem of British poetry of the 70s and 80s. This will involve the analysis of his poetry combined with a consideration of such issues as influence, publication, poetic movements and so on.
The general structure of my thesis will be a more or less chronological examination of the works, however in certain cases thematically related works will be considered together even if they are not chronologically adjacent. While my thesis will not have any broad theoretical underpinning, certain issues such as the aforementioned question of orientalism will necessitate an interrogation of the relevant theoretical concepts.

References

Anderson, Benedict. “James Fenton's Slideshow.” New Left Review I.158 (July-August 1986).
Auden, W. H. and Christopher Isherwood. Journey to a War. London: Faber and Faber, 1973.
Fenton, James. All the Wrong Places: Adrift in the Politics of Southeast Asia. London: Granta, 2005.
Fenton, James. Yellow Tulips: Poems 1968-2011. London: Faber and Faber, 2013.
Heaney, Seamus. “Making it New.” New York Review of Books. 25 October 1984.
Kerr, Douglas. “Orientations: James Fenton and Indochina.” Contemporary Literature 35.3 (1994):476-491.
Kerr, Douglas. Eastern Figures: Orient and Empire in British Writing. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2008.
Kirsch, Adam. “The Stephen Spender Of His Generation.” New York Sun. 16 October 2006.
Moran, Joe. “Out of the East: James Fenton and Contemporary History.” Literature & History 9.2 (2000): 53-68.
Murphy, Kevin. "Fenton's Wooden Horse: How the English Praise the Irish," The Bookpress, 6.5 (September 1996)
Parakrama, Arjuna. "The Art of (W)riting Oneself Out of Danger. " Critical Quarterly 36.2 (1994): 111-114.
Parker, Ian. “Auden's Heir.” New Yorker. 25 July 1994.
Shivani, Anis. "James Fenton Early and Late." Michigan Quarterly Review 46.4 (2007)