Dunbar the Makar
Priscilla Bawcutt
Abstract
Dunbar's genius has been recognised not only by critics but by modern poets such as Auden and Eliot. This critical study examines Dunbar's view of himself as a poet, or ‘makar’, and the way he handles various poetic genres. New emphasis is placed on the petitions, or begging-poems, and their use for poetic introspection. There is also a particularly full study of Dunbar's under-valued comic poems, and of the modes most congenial to him: notably parody; irony; ‘flyting’, or invective; and black dream-fantasy. The author takes account of recent scholarship on Dunbar and also the literary traditi ... More
Dunbar's genius has been recognised not only by critics but by modern poets such as Auden and Eliot. This critical study examines Dunbar's view of himself as a poet, or ‘makar’, and the way he handles various poetic genres. New emphasis is placed on the petitions, or begging-poems, and their use for poetic introspection. There is also a particularly full study of Dunbar's under-valued comic poems, and of the modes most congenial to him: notably parody; irony; ‘flyting’, or invective; and black dream-fantasy. The author takes account of recent scholarship on Dunbar and also the literary traditions available to him, both in Latin and the vernaculars, including ‘popular’ and alliterative poetry as well as that of Chaucer and his followers. In her account of the poetry, she contests the over-simple and reductive views purveyed by some critics that Dunbar is primarily a moralist, or no more than a skilled virtuoso.
Keywords:
Dunbar,
poet,
makar,
poetic genres,
petitions,
begging-poems,
comic poems
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 1992 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780198129639 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: October 2011 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198129639.001.0001 |
