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    197 views32 pages

    Postmodern American Poetry Intro Norton

    Uploaded by

    Daniel Aguirre Oteiza

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    ODYSSEY | 42/10/2019 2:55:40 PM Call #; PS615 .P669 2013 = 19 Location: UH/MD Anderson (Please update within 24 hours.) Library Stacks Available ILLiad TN: 1213563 ILL Number: -15535604 i PELL i i ‘Journal Tite: Postmodem American poety:@ Borrower: RAPID:HLS Norton anthology / "WIDENER LIBRARY-ILL Yel ess 19 Pages: Hl Opyssey :206.107.43.109 oe EMAIL: ILLWEB@FAS-HARVARD.EDU Article Author: - ‘Article Tite: Preface-Intro Hi ‘ ’ Lending String: Patron: NOTES: Thank You for Using Our Services! , peprovided det othe paren For iearch w purposes and "Os archived by the borrowing Insiion beyond oral regain. Ss Preface ‘The frst edition of Postmodern American Poetry hada powerful and surpris: ing impact contemporary American poetry: In cawnizing new practices such as language poetry and honoring the avant-garde in generat issued a ‘dlallenge to many pocts working. the “workshop” mode of expression of the luvs. Seemg that other paths were open, they hes to migrate across the Dndries, creating a cleft between their early and recent works, At the same tine, poets of the aant-garde began to e hired as professors in MEA creative ‘writing programs, where they were confronted by the professional demands fe, As happens with every generation, the new wins the day andl the broader writing culture is altered by its theories and practices. Like the other arts, poetry experiences westhetic turns as historial events and genera tional temperament impact the poctes of our tine Just as Beat poctey was a faeo- Romantic tira avay from the formalist rule of the New Criticism of the 1040s, new practices since the early 1990s have reflected a turn from poetry as an expression of the metaphysical and transcendent tow procedluralism and ‘nontraditional forms. In 1994 the newest poetics was that of langage poetry Taxi the new is represented by conceptual poetry. Newlipo, exberpoetry including Plaef, and the postaugnage Irie {In 2009 W. W. Norton published the anthology American Hybrid, edited boy Cole Swensen and Davi St. John, whieh argued against the avant-garde ‘ycle of the new and proposed an end to the oppositional, vangeuard-versus- trea theory of poetry. It's an interesting concept, rather like Francis Fulnyamals 1989 essay, "Tho End of History, which posts a “post political ‘world eamdition. I would argue tothe contrary. There will be no settled and Permanent condition of poetry. New practices will continue to appear under the pressure of historical, technological, and generational changes, Who im ‘ned that Alfred Jarry's theory of Pataphiysies would influence the digital age, that poetry would be proxuced via online search engines, and that a tra scription of an isu of the New York Times would be valued as “unoriginal of waclemie oul © Prefece \wrting”® Just as Jackson Pollock dispensca with the brush, eonceptnal pets Kenneth Goldsmith and Craig Dworkin have dispensed with the thar Wa had thought that language poetry hat! gene as far as pose. Now we see the vubierability ofits glorification of aithor as sslist. With afew exceptions, all ofthe pocts anthologized in this von afro ‘or based! in the United States. The work of tur Canaan author appears because they have lve fara significant period! of tine in thee Cited States or heen intimately involved im the development of aeae practoe inflata in this countey: Poets in this volume ure onganiced cheonologivilly by date of birth, and poems are dated aeceoing to their frst app that author im the right asargin direct filling the prem Dates i la belt 4o the title indicate the dite of composition 1c feat hoch, by ‘This anthology hen when, in 1991.1 spoke-te Barry Wale of WW: Nonton about the need for an anthulagy af poetey of the othr tradition,“ on hal been published sinew Donald Allens The New American Poetry 1945-1980, He was roeeptive tothe ide aid uske! fora proposal which elt te pb tion ofthe fst elton of Paster Amevican Pact: Norton Antholoy §n 1904, Under the supervision af Norton editor lia Reilhwad, the: hook wen 8 great sucess the classroom standard for teachers an stents interested in ew developments in poet. For help with this second edition, 1 express my gratitude: to Carle Fraser Donia aon ctor for her wisdom anal superb organizational sills in guiing tis eatin, aswell as Hanah Blalsell, assistant elitr who help in the preparation tHe mannoseript was nvalhable I wont aso lke to thank Julia Relive, nove clitoral director for the calle divsion, for helping tr tion possible Thanks also tothe scholars Siane Nga for thei {90 to Maria Baranda for her advice aud ofthis project Tam gratetasaheays to Mas Philip. and ts irt trade season a ean she this second edi Perloff. Charles Altieri. andl j-of contents. My hesrtfelt thanks port throngheat the development he Cherwoll my children Koren, ‘and iny grandson Doran Michael Hoover introduction What Is Postmodern Poetry? “The poet Charles Olson used the word “postmodern” as early as an Oetober 20, 1951, letter to Robert Creeley from Black Mountain, North Carolina Donbting the value of historial relies when compared withthe process of ing, Olson states: “And had we not, ourselves (I mean postmodern man), bet ter just leave such things behind ss—and not so much teash of discourse, & soci?” As used in this anthology, “postmodern” covers the historical period following World War I, and refers to avant-garde poetry by American poets from 1950 to the prosent. Broudly speaking, the term suggests an experi imental approach to composition, as well as a worldview that sets itself upart froin mainstream culture and the sentimentality and selFexptessiveness of its Ife in writing, Arising from within the economic contest of postwar con- sumer society marked! by the overwhelming influence of large corporations the philosophical context of existentialism, and the technological context af ‘ever-more-powerful mass communications, the period contains several mark: cers: 1975, the end of the Vietnam War; 1989, the dissolution of the Soviet Union; and September 11, 2001, whose tragic events are coineklent with the expansion of global capitalism, Over the decades covered in this anthology, the term “postmodern” has received acceptance in all areas of culture and the arts: it has even come to be considered a reigning syle, one that continues in the twenty-first century. Despite such enormous changes and turbulent events culturally the situa- tion is much the sume as 1991, when critic Frederic Jameson wrote, “Its safest to grasp the concept ofthe postmodern as an attempt to think about the pres- ent historically nan age that has forgotten how to think historically inthe fist 1. Charts Olen and Hebert Grey: The Complete Correspondence, Va 8, Sats Ros, 1987, pm vox Introduction place’ The postmodem view reacts wot to history as nmel ast entra aad aesthetic production. preferring the imag tothe object they tte origina the maximal tothe minimal, surface to depth Is syle Ihas Beun seseribesd as “quntationistcitatonist and “double-eed."* Mess rather than wat phir rather than singular, mannered and abligue rather thin straightlonwavel it pre fers the complications of the everelay:anel the found to the simpliities ofthe hero. ts tongne is serious in its cheek, Is ll ses rather thas ne Jameson has argued that postin teenth-century romanticisny and early tweutieth-century non lernisi, bi bs words, postmodernism is characterized by “aesthetic papnliy” “the deeon struction of expression,"“the waning of aflect.” “three of the hourgenis and “the fmitation of dead style” threngh the: use of pastiche Ie Janes opinton, postmodernism isthe perleet expression af hte capitalist elit ae dominated by mnltinational corporations. If fatnesan is cornect, “der tion of expression” is symptomatic of the los of inv idusity st evan society and, under the 2002 toma Sceurity et. strug Hits an jr vaey and individual sights, As history fn ts “ent” in ioral emocrae aad Consumerism, i loses its sense of struggle and diseases This results i the represents st laeak site nie alfectless or “blank” style of some of toiv’s conceptual poets 6 we a bat fvage poetry's preference for Gertrude Steins “continuous present” Sint larly, Jamesons “aesthetic populism” would reflect the triply of nuassrneaia Comsmunieation over the written wor. Ln this new edition, there ante seneral “authorless texts, ters” contai th Goldsmith's “Seven Anwetican Deaths and Disa ot one worl of hi own expression it uns a (racrta Of police tapes and mass communications reports. The text waht cel edited but, strictly speaking iis not authored. Sach an app presents a challenge fo authorship’ tecasured concept of ariel Others argue that postiodernisin isan extension of romsantiia ant x exnism oth of which stl thrive. Ths what Jeson elle past pte work of styles, i simply a further development of neater eollags- aloes cultural pluralism can be identified in Eliot, The Waste Lane. Pounds th Canto, and Pieass' Cubist appropriation ofthe cerenunial maskeaf Irean the elfrefesieness of postiodern art ca be find tn Jnees Foun Rite and as lr bak se Tistr Shady: perlormance pats snp te hiding those of Wordsworth and Willian 2. roto, The Mat Coke Bs hs omar Daan Ne, Pp. 53-99, fe Calc Le of Late Catton, of Mileraty Mornin a vihan NCU pee Garde. Devolene Ritwh w Luft Review No. WB ues lo Introduction © xxi romantic Wallace Stevens and the modernist Augusta: W. fH. Auden, Jobn Cage's use of the “prepated piano” and his emphasis on indeterminacy In language represent high postmodernism, yet they ean also be situated, alony svth the Aeolian harp. a stringed instrument on whiels the wind played, in the history of romanticism, The contemporary emphasis on machine poetics, m, proceduralism, the death of subjectivity, and found material thetic materialism of the early Soviet perio, To tovwork against ancient construct can be traced to Dada an further confuse the pieture, some poetic practices that appe expression, like the Daala eut-up poem and Google sculpting, resemble ivinatory practices. For example, the West African practice of Ifa dvi depends on the casting of sixteen cowrie shells. How the shells fall direets the: Dabalawo, oF priest to recite one of256 poems of the Hix canon, whieh then serves as the supplicant’s eure. The exberpoct takes sunples from the gecat confine stream of digital conscionsness; the resulting poem will bear the evi- dence of our cultural and psychic condition. Acts of chance in divination and art are often highly methodical. John Cage prepared is piano for dissonance by hampering certain string Inthe frst edition of this anthology, we chose “postanodern” for the title ver “experimental” “avantgarde.” and “millennial” because itis the most cencompassing term for the variety of new practices since World Wa IL, rang ing from the oral poetics of Beat ane! performance poetries to the more "writ. cry” work of the New York School und language poetry: Now itis ealled upon to encompass the further developments of the postlanguage Isric, conceptual poetry, evberpoeties, and proceduralism, These new poeties tend to work in opposition to the motives of mid-twentieth-century romanticism, which served us the dominant model from 1950 to 1990, While langage poetry has been the major influence and theoretical model since 1990, newer directions ure divided hetween the postlanguage lyric, which seeks the expressive, and Conceptual, eshernetic, ane procedural poetics, which work against writing us expression, Once feared for desiring to run Irie poetzy aut of the eanon, language poetry hus provided Bucbara Guest, Ann Lauterbach, Rosmarie Waldrop, and Andrew Joron, among many other saitary singers, with fresh resources. Nevertheless, the poetics standoff remains the division between the ghost ithe human igure, myth, and song) and the machine (structure rnethor and wit. Both styles are postmodern. One might even speak of early and late postmodernisms. The early consists of Beat, projetivist, New York School, deep image. and aleatory poeties (Cage and Mae Low’. while late post- modernism represents a digital and media-conscious shift to cybernetic and machine poetics. “Thc concep ofthe postmodern bas come der ertcism, but no other term thas arisen that seems adequate to describe the cultural condition since World War II. The scholar John Frow casts it into past tense in “What Wias Postmod. ermisn2 btn th ‘estinodern” and. be smpietion, whut it represe ofthe word, however eritating this may be, sees to indicate that sonneting ‘sat take someting that eannot he brushed aside theoretical fashion Mors important, the philesophicl folios of the postinoder are ex tential rather than metaphysical ancl derive fram the philosophers of cvs iat! by one commentator as Nietzselw, He Fda Gregory Brace Smith writes, "Netrsele meant that it snl Tog bye posible or man to ties in anthin Poral world thatthe bases ofthe values tat hat previns sickle by iy were deste ance an for ll. te and therewith Being, toe rephiced by the unre Eternity is reduced to Exherity. the esernetiesniverse that ea be share by all mach of which is munuane anu pra. tt 6 nat that postnodesnishs lacks foondations. as some fave suggested, fut nther that the fortis have shifted from the transcendent to th everyday fm snrteaiss seat for the abot tothe emphasis in Dua o found serials, performance at and concep id points out the difficulty of dispensing with the word is "The very: persistence et, Foncnlt und Dor ty was driven: ont completely onting, reign of Becom alsin: fom the necessary and natural to the arbitrary. contin ent, andl manmade, Insteat of playinyein the fells ofthe Lod, the poet phos with the material substance ofthe to philosophy, “I have le. another one, but bec a Meideger wrote of his approach it for xystation ‘ong. way The lasting ekement in thinking is the way. Ane was of thinking hho within ther that mysterons quit that we ean walk then forward an brckvard, wl that indict ely te way hack will lead ne forward Being om the earlier standpoint, nat in order to evel 1 even the former standpaint was merely a remains stublioruly unlerwas hy and refashioning established practices. The way forward is the ‘ag buck to Jarry. Tara, Dichatop, andl teh According to critic Petr Blige. avant-gunte art opposes the fon ode ofconschonsness by attempting to clase the yay between art and fife However “an arto longer dstnet fron the pravis of ie but wholly absorbed in # will ose the capacity to criticize i Vanguard thus collaborates with jineteenth-century aesthetiism in the diminishment of art's social Funetion ‘sen as itattompts to advance it: The risks that the avantgarde will becotne vay Cultural Thor dvd Posoaernity, Oxford WHF Proplvts of Earenty Nato Heidezser Foucault Deri Meth, Midaaerad the Frnt to Pomerat, Cha Pile tangage btw fase sly pine tra Beer D- rn On he Wyte Lagu. San Franchew p12 Trg Ue Aco Garde "aD Michiel Sl. Minneapelin Ui p90, Introduction © xt an institution with its onc selE-proteetive stn, powerless to ee or affect the enrve of history. When the frst editios of this anthology appeared, he newest development was language poetry. a Marvistfensinist pocties tat insistence sw thus word as suk dlespite its oppenitian fo the rorsutic Shared fv nai of the ealtural assinmptions of thee Beats. such as resistance to onrnadity culture. The wore recent seal of thomght mig’ soenn compar tively pesthistorial in approach, They may ever appear to revel in axpects of American culture ancl fact, following the situationists, many of torty’s conerptna and exberpoets Daack on ise by holling the mie fs ncaa that Charles Olsen called Spejanueraes.” Io frm vilenee al yass-aneia anil ror of ts ony hawgage up toi ‘This antholouy hopes to assert that asunt-garce poetry endages in ts resis tance to do sree that res pct asa whole through nes: hu inital: shocking, artistic strate tes, The “normal” away of writing in any pen was first the practice of the inant and reveived anoles of pootrys Hs the avant Fmwivators of peevions generations, In the introduction to the frst edition of this book, se: siggestea, “By this reasoning, eoeent postinoslern aesthetics Hike ul sfluene dn the corning decades."‘This has proved to bean une rstatenent. Th wlone ch nniversiies. nul their practice has beconne: so historieizect eat, sine the turn ofthe aflenniin, erties be perfornanee poetry sinstevamy practice ngage poy will at lai age poets hold refered toa posthinutae” generation, With the rie of ervative writing grad te prow 1 liseiphine,” even the outsiders nl teaching positions lable, Born in 1968, the concrptedl poct C ial atthe University of Uta, where he eat eclipse: The: eoners of his hooks ae prolly displayed on the Ral depset invent website. The majority of the books are academic shuies on concep tal poetry. aout whi ef Dra commentato, There thon tis ve Snecessil profile to shnwer Craig Dworkin: pte tthe contrary: The point Fs that on tmany fronts, the okt oppasitions af town and gown, bohemian snd academic, have broken down, Apparently nobody in the English dpa demands that Craig, Dworkin alter his poeties to serve the greater uesthetic for nioral good, oF commence: pen a sonnet seapience. In the history of such relations. this isa relatively new development. One of the leading practitioners ofthe eyherpoetry nude called Flarf,K,Sikemn Mohammad, did indeed write Ja sonnet sequence, which he calls sonnagrams, based on anagrams of the lies ‘of Shakespeare's ines, Because such a procedure reqizesthe nse of an online grav generator, the resulting translations can be trifinggor profane. 1s up ke the best of the: procexdure to which she oF he has professinalization of what academies ul sanguardists vig Devorkin. is professor of a eomeeptal poetry wehsite ns ane the increas to the port as editor to committed, As the neve manements of their day, Dada, surzealisin, modern: ‘aan and the Beats vere considered silly andor transgressive, This is tra Hi onlays new mumeanents, 1s onsite al clase contrat lt the erst of these works cameras, Devon what ut fist seems their hudie +The fone tka ot the survival of avantgarde. but rather the sstonishing pest with which a tramps Vestioaernisn iy not a single style with is departure in Pound's Cantos as arrival powctrys iis, rather, nt practices. Wil th: somvet. Evta Poona against pentancter: today’s eoneepteal poets Ken seth Golds snd Craig Dork question creativity ite dleselopmcnt we recognize that the langage game of poetry is continually in play Nout how sharp the break witha former tradition, new methods an rca fattening tothe pac result in 4 “having si” Someone who stands before uss priest has east the cowie shells once more. Inthe 1960, in opposition tothe impersonal, Augustan poetry encouraged hy the New Criticism, the postmiodern revolt was primarily in the direction ‘of personal, oral and “organic” poetry that saw each voice as unique. Frank ‘O'Hara injunction, "You just go on your nerve, called for un mprovistory portics of the everylay that was essentially neoromantic. Yet, in is intense ‘csualness, is poetry also argued agunst the romanti concept of sel nits

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