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 26
... later involvement with the larger , compartmentalized pastures of the academy . While I am clearly an interested party , I intend this as a critical book and not simply a celebration or an example of language writing . In places I've ...
... later : good , bad , modernist , postmodernist , novelist , poet . But “ The Marginalization of Poetry ” wants to reconfigure the categories of literary history . As a performative gesture such a task is , of course , chancy : in this ...
... later , to theory , were constitutive of such a poetic stance . In this situation , modernism was no longer especially important . The discursive tone of later Eliot , the incantatory vaticism of Yeats , the kaleidoscopic novelty of ...
... later become the mainstream is one in which literary overthrow is a standard practice . The performance pieces and talks on poetics that took place frequently during the initial stages of the formation of the language group were ...
... later , I will be giving a somewhat anecdotal account of how things worked in practice . The shifting collectivities were somewhat amorphous , focused around specific venues and publications . The Objectivists , rather than firmly ...
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 |