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The American avant-garde tradition : William Carlos Williams, postmodern poetry, and the politics of cultural memory
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The American avant-garde tradition : William Carlos Williams, postmodern poetry, and the politics of cultural memory

Author: John Lowney
Publisher: Lewisburg, Pa. : Bucknell university Press ; London ; Cranbury, NJ : Associated University Presses, ©1997.
Edition/Format:   Book : EnglishView all editions and formats
Summary:
This book addresses how discourses of cultural nationalism and avant-gardism have structured the formation of American poetry canons. Examining William Carlos Williams's importance for postmodern poetry, it underscores how his literary reputation has figured prominently in recent reconsiderations of twentieth-century American literary history. The postmodern poets responding to Williams emphasize not only the
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Additional Physical Format: Online version:
Lowney, John, 1957-
American avant-garde tradition.
Lewisburg, Pa. : Bucknell university Press ; London ; Cranbury, NJ : Associated University Presses, c1997
(OCoLC)631645332
Named Person: William Carlos Williams; William Carlos Williams
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: John Lowney
ISBN: 0838753337 9780838753330
OCLC Number: 34319422
Description: 175 p. ; 24 cm.
Contents: Introduction: canon formation, avant-gardism, and William Carlos Williams's literary reputation --
"A plot of ground": Williams's poetics of descent --
"To witness the words being born": Williams's poetics of dissent --
"Pure products": imitation, affiliation, and the politics of female creativity in Denise Levertov's poetry --
"Going to sleep with quandariness": the "post-anti-esthetic" poetics of Frank O'Hara --
"Words we have learned not to look at": George Oppen and Cold-War American culture.
Responsibility: John Lowney.

Abstract:

This book addresses how discourses of cultural nationalism and avant-gardism have structured the formation of American poetry canons. Examining William Carlos Williams's importance for postmodern poetry, it underscores how his literary reputation has figured prominently in recent reconsiderations of twentieth-century American literary history. The postmodern poets responding to Williams emphasize not only the cultural politics of constructing literary reputations, but also a more fundamental assumption that governs canon formation, the assumption that "poetic language" excludes speech types marking social difference.

Williams's commitment to experimentation and the destruction of traditional forms allies his poetics with the critical stance of the international avant-garde. His writing is especially sensitive, however, to linguistic registers of social difference in the United States. Focusing especially on Williams's early experimentation with poetic form, through Spring and All, but also on his critical and imaginative prose, such as In the American Grain, this book argues that two contingent rhetorical motives structure his response to cultural change: what Lowney calls the "poetics of descent" and the "poetics of dissent."

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schema:description"This book addresses how discourses of cultural nationalism and avant-gardism have structured the formation of American poetry canons. Examining William Carlos Williams's importance for postmodern poetry, it underscores how his literary reputation has figured prominently in recent reconsiderations of twentieth-century American literary history. The postmodern poets responding to Williams emphasize not only the cultural politics of constructing literary reputations, but also a more fundamental assumption that governs canon formation, the assumption that "poetic language" excludes speech types marking social difference."
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