Private poets, worldly acts : public and private history in contemporary American poetry / Kevin Stein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stein, Kevin, 1954-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American poetry--20th century--History and criticism.

American poetry.

Literature and history--United States--History--20th century.

Literature and history.

United States.

History.

Literature and society--United States--History--20th century.

Literature and society.

Modernism (Literature)--United States.

Modernism (Literature).

Group identity in literature.

Communities in literature.

Self in literature.

Physical Description:

xv, 190 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Athens : Ohio University Press, [1996]

Summary:

A thoughtful and compelling look into American poetry's redemptive venture into the public arena, Private Poets, Worldly Acts examines the critical intersection of the personal with the communal, the locale where readers find a renewed appreciation of contemporary poets' personal conversation with the culture to which they belong.

Contents:

Worldly Acts: History and Twentieth-Century American Poetry

Chapter 1 Learning To "Live With What Was Here": Robert Lowell and Adrienne Rich 20

Chapter 2 "Everything the Opposite" of History: A Literary Basis for the Anti-Literary in Frank O'Hara's Lunch Poems 43

Chapter 3 "A Dark River of Labor": Work and Workers in James Wright's Poetry 57

Chapter 4 Why "Nothing Is Past": Philip Levine's Conversation with History 71

Chapter 5 Vietnam and the "Voice Within": Yusef Komunyakaa's Dien Cai Dau 90

Chapter 6 Lives in Motion: Multiple Perspectives in the Poetry of Rita Dove 108

Chapter 7 Manipulating Cultural Assumptions: Transgression and Obedience in David Wojahn's Rock 'n' Roll Sonnets 127

Chapter 8 "The Hour Farthest from God": Ethical Matters in Carolyn Forche's Poetry 144.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [166]-184) and index.

ISBN:

0821411632

OCLC:

34514573