department of english and related literature february 2007

THOM GUNN AND

THE OCCASIONS OF POETRY

:;

fl CHUNKIT FAN

PHD

THE UNIVERSITYOFYORK

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND RELATED LITERATURE

FEBRUARY 2007

for H.H.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS DECLARATION ABSTRACT ABBREVIATIONS

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I

THREE BODIES AT RISK: ICONIC MASCULINITY IN GUNN'S EARLY POETRY

CHAPTER2

'COMPOSINGUNCOMPOSEV:RISK, DREAMS& DRUGS IN MOLY(1971)

CHAPTER3

'THE SNIFFOFTHE REAV: NIGHTMARE & AUTOBIOGRAPHY CASTLE(1976) INJACKSTRAW'S

CHAPTER4

'PASSTHROUGH THE CITY: STREETLIVESIN THEPASSAGES OFJOY(1982)

CHAPTER5

PRONOUNS& THE IMAGE OF EMBRACEIN THEMAN WITHNIGHT SWEATS (1992)

CHAPTER 6

'AmOROUS SCRIPTS': DESIRE & AGING IN Boss CUPID (2000)

CONCLUSION

APPENDIX

STATISTICS OF THE

CRISIS FROM 1989 To AIDS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

i

2005

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE PLATEI

Thom Gunn's leather gearand tattoo. Photographsby Peter Abramowitsch. Reproducedfrom GeoffreySummerfield,ed.

49

PLATE2A

photo by Ander Gunn. Reproduced from Thom & Ander Gunn, Positives(London: Faber and Faber, 1966), p. 29.

50

PLATE3

Some images of Jack StraWs Castle in Hampstead Heath, London. It used to be a pub and now turned into penthouse by Taken the author. apartments.

122

PLATE4

Caravaggio's HeadofMcdusa(1595-1600). Reproduced from Kberhard Konig, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio(Germany: Konemann, 1998), p. 11.

123

PLATE5

Gunrfs house on Cole Street in San Francisco (top) taken by the author. Flowers and Gunn' s portrait placed by his doorway his death (bottom) taken by the author. one year after

152

PLATE6

American book cover of BossCupid (2000) published by Farrar Strauss Giroux, New York.

239

PLATE7

DianeFarris Gallay, A selection from TrueNorth by Attila Richard Lukas, january 2006. Reproduced from: (http: //www. dianefarrisgallery. com/artist/lukacs/truenorth/index.

240

Worlds: Seven Modem Poets(London:PenguinEducation,1974), pp. 72-3.

html)

PLATE 8

LucienFreudýs InteriorwithHandMirror(Self-Portrait),1967used for the British editionof Boss Cupid,publishedby Faber& Faber.

241

PLATE 9

NationalGalleryofArt,Washington, EdouardVuillard,TwoWomen DrinkingCoffee, March2006. htm>