Publisher's Synopsis
This is a collection of essays on the common theme of the consciousness of regional and national identity, historically rooted or newly emergent, resisting the pressures of traditionally dominant metropolitan centres. The contributors to this volume include the Irish poet Seamus Heaney, Iain Crichton Smith (who writes in both Gaelic and English), and academics from Britain, North America and continental countries.;Their subjects are equally varied - Wordsworth, Wallace Stevens, the distinctively Australian poetry of Les Murray and the "west coast" culture of recent British Columbian writers.
