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
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... line was heard , though they'd scarcely refer to it . Quoting or imitating another poet's line is not benign , though at times the practice can look like flattery . In the regions of academic discourse , the patterns of production and ...
... lines don't establish an audible rhythm ; perhaps they aren't , to use the Calvinist mercantile metaphor , “ earning ” their right to exist in their present form — is this a line break or am I simply chopping up ineradicable prose ? But ...
... lines by the typesetter ( Ruth in tears amid the alien corn ) , and into pages by publishing processes . This violent smoothness is the visible sign of the writer's submission to norms of technological reproduction . " Submission ” is ...
... lines ? Doesn't this essentialize poetry in a big way ? Certainly some poetry is thoroughly opposed to prose and does depend on the precise way it's scored onto the page : beyond their eccentric margins , both Olson's Maximus Poems and ...
... lines spirals more than 360 degrees -- one spiralling page is reproduced in holograph . These sections are immune to standardizing media : to quote them you need a photocopier not a word processor . Similarly , the work of writers ...
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 |
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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 |