The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing and Literary HistoryLanguage writing, the most controversial avant-garde movement in contemporary American poetry, appeals strongly to writers and readers interested in the politics of postmodernism and in iconoclastic poetic form. Drawing on materials from popular culture, avoiding the standard stylistic indications of poetic lyricism, and using nonsequential sentences are some of the ways in which language writers make poetry a more open and participatory process for the readers. Reading this kind of writing, however, may not come easily in a culture where poetry is treated as property of a special class. It is this barrier that Bob Perelman seeks to break down in this fascinating and comprehensive account of the language writing movement. A leading language writer himself, Perelman offers insights into the history of the movement and discusses the political and theoretical implications of the writing. He provides detailed readings of work by Lyn Hejinian, Ron Silliman, and Charles Bernstein, among many others, and compares it to a wide range of other contemporary and modern American poetry. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 25
... attack , I'll say that both the flush left and irregular right margins constantly loom as significant events , often interrupting what I thought I was about to write and making me write something else entirely . Even though I'm going ...
... attacks on the voice poem , the experience poem , the mostly free - verse descendants of Wordsworth's spots of time : first - person meditations where the meaning of life becomes visible after 20 or 30 lines . In its own world , this ...
... attacking self , reference , and history . As initial formal goals and polemical rallying cries , such attacks had specific literary value ; as slogans they have devolved to little more than inflight snacks served on the proliferant ...
... university , language writing was accused of being academic before very many academics had heard much about it . By the mid - eighties university critics began to take notice , attacking or celebrating the movement's 14 TWO.
Language Writing and Literary History Bob Perelman. began to take notice , attacking or celebrating the movement's literary - political claims ; but the claims have tended to receive more consideration than the writing itself and the ...
Contents
The Avantgarde Particulars | 38 |
The New Sentence in Theory | 59 |
Orthography and Community | 79 |
Bruce Andrews | 96 |
Eight An Alphabet of Literary History | 144 |
NOTES | 167 |
INDEX | 183 |
Other editions - View all
The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing and Literary History Bob Perelman Limited preview - 1996 |
The Marginalization of Poetry: Language Writing and Literary History Bob Perelman Limited preview - 1996 |