Ted Hughes: The Unaccommodated Universe, with Selected Critical Writings by Ted Hughes and Two Interviews

225 pp. "The Unaccommodated Universe is a good introduction to Ted Hughes's work. It also contains "selected critical writings by Ted Hughes and two interviews". Mostly, the critical pieces are abbreviated versions from articles and reviews Hughes wrote. The full originals of most of these have been collected in Ted Hughes's Winter Pollen. The two interviews are those conducted by Faas himself in 1970 and 1977: "Ted Hughes and Crow" and "Ted Hughes and Gaudete". The Unaccommodated Universe is divided into the following chapters: I. Origins: 1. The New Global Tradition. 2. A Radical Primitivism. II. Poetics: 1. "Flash Vision" Creativity. 2. Exercises in Meditation and Invocation. 3. Concept of Language. 4. Myth, Parapsychology and the Poetic Imagination. III. Beginnings: 1. Boyhood, University and Early Poetry. 2. The Breakthrough of "The Thought-Fox". 3. In Search of Lupercalia and "Hawk Roosting". IV. Towards Crow: 1. Lady Lazarus. 2. The Wound and "Theology". 3. Children's Books and Educational Psychotherapy. 4. Eat Crow and Recklings. 5. Wodwo. V. Crow: 1. Pseudo-Biblical and Mythical Poems. 2. The Influence of Primitive Poetry. 3. The Story of Crow. 4. From Crow to Orghast. VI. Gaudete: 1. The Story of the Reverend Lumb and His Doppelgänger. 2. Verse Form and Narrative Technique. 3. The Epilogue Poems. Appendix I contains the excerpts from Hughes's critical writings, Appendix II the two interviews.