The Wounded Surgeon: Confession and Transformation in Six American Poets is a book by Adam Kirsch, published in 2005 by W. W. Norton & Company (ISBN 978-0393051971). The book considers in turn the work of six poets whose work has often been labelled 'confessional': Robert Lowell, Elizabeth Bishop, John Berryman, Randall Jarrell, Delmore Schwartz and Sylvia Plath. Kirsch has set out to write "a brief biography of their poetry",[1] and attempts to demonstrate that the metaphor of confession has led to a misunderstanding of their work, in particular by doing a disservice to the technique and craft that the writers brought to bear to fashion works of art.

The Wounded Surgeon
AuthorAdam Kirsch
LanguageEnglish
SubjectLiterary criticism
GenreNon-fiction
PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
Publication date
2005
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardback)
ISBN978-0-393-05197-1
OCLC57168247
LC ClassPS310.C65 K57 2005

Footnotes

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In the following footnotes, the subject of this article has been abbreviated to TWS.

  1. ^ TWS page xi