‘The Cage Called Fatherland’: The Poetry of Michael Hofmann

This thesis is the first comprehensive full-length study of the poetry of Michael Hofmann (1957–), who was born in Germany, educated in Britain and now lives in the United States. Widely hailed as one of the most original and influential voices in British poetry during the 1980s and early 1990s, I argue that Hofmann’s five published volumes of poetry, from his debut Nights In The Iron Hotel (1983) to his latest collection, One Lark, One Horse (2018), chronicle the poet’s sentimental and intellectual education from adolescence to middle-age, as well as the traumatic emotional experiences that arose out of poet’s relationship with his father, the German novelist Gert Hofmann (1931–1993), whom Hofmann portrayed to shocking effect in his breakthrough second collection, Acrimony (1986). Furthermore, I argue that Hofmann’s work may be interpreted as an exploration of the geo-existential anxiety prompted by his inability to fully integrate himself in the places he has lived in throughout his life, in particular Germany, Britain, and the U.S., elucidating why Hofmann has described his poetry as constituting an ‘extended passport application’. Methodologically, this thesis situates itself at the intersection between close reading textual analyses, psycho-biographical investigations of the poet’s life, and narrative perspectives that contextualise the sociopolitical field of references Hofmann weaves into his poems.  Furthermore, I examine Hofmann’s chief literary influences, revealing that while he was heavily inspired by the example of Robert Lowell’s confessional model, his work was also shaped by other poetic mentors, including Ian Hamilton and Hugo Williams. My thesis concludes with an overview of the poet’s forty-three-year career, while charting the influence he has exerted on other poets, testifying to the value and importance of his oeuvre in the contemporary British tradition.