Poetic acts & new media / Tom O'Connor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Connor, Tom, 1972-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mass media and literature.

Poetics.

Literature--Aesthetics.

Literature.

Physical Description:

xxxvi, 174 pages ; 23 cm

Other Title:

Poetic acts and new media

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : University Press of America, [2007]

Summary:

Poetic Acts & New Media advances the fields of literary and new media studies by clarifying boundaries between competing genres and media through the creation of a new artistic genre, "media poetry." This aesthetic mode of expression/becoming seeks to transform mass culture (our codes of communication) by self-consciously acknowledging how textual, audio, and/or visual signs are constructed according to their simulation and not their representation. This study draws heavily upon literary media theories that intersect with Gilles Deleuze's philosophy of "Sense" as a simulated power of sensory transformations. Media poetry becomes a complex power of "Sense" by blending conventional mass-media codes with poetic simulations that provide alternative forms of creating meaning.

Poetic Acts & New Media specifically examines the works of several poets that exemplify this multi-sensory approach to printed-text poetry, especially: Langston Hughes, Tony Medina, David Wojahn, John Kinsella, David Trinidad. It also analyzes several contemporary films that embody the multi-modal logic of media poetry: David Lynch's Mullholland Drive, Cameron Crowe's Vanilla Sky, Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich. In addition, this study interprets two influential primetime TV shows as exemplars of media poetry: Twin Peaks and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. All media poetry, regardless of genre or medium, allows readers/viewers to envision "reality production" as a rewriteable and poetic enterprise that can productively remediate any transparent abstraction or common-sense realism.

Contents:

Introduction: Poetic Acts & New Media xv

Sense-events: A Re-birth of the Poetic xxi

Poetic-expressionism: A Resistance to Hegemony xxx

1 Media Poetry Vs. L=A-N=G-U=A=G=E Poetry 3

Language Poetry & Its Discontents 8

And Now Back to Media Poetry 18

The Media Poetry of David Trinidad 27

Reality Studios: From Text to Contexts 43

2 A Hollywood of Poetry 47

Cruising Mulholland Dr.: Media Culture as Metaphor 50

Vanilla Skies & Body Portals 58

'Fame:' The Pitfalls of Voyeurism & Vicarious Living in Being John Malkovich 65

Other Films that Make You Think 73

3 Bourgeois Myth Vs. Media Poetry in Prime-Time: Re-Visiting Mark Frost & David Lynch's Twin Peaks 75

The Social Make-up of Twin Peaks 80

Adolescence & the Poetic on Twin Peaks 88

Twin Peaks' Ironicaliy-cliched Universe 102

4 "It's Rather Poetic": Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Deleuze's Becoming-Art 107

The Buffyverse: Magic as a Poetic Language 112

A Portrait of the Slayer as a Poetry Fan 116

"No More Hiding:" Willow & Emotional Control 133

"Yeah Buffy, What Are We Gonna Do Now?" 143

Coda: The Fine Art of Convergence 145

Poetic Convergence & Global Networks: John Kinsella's TV 148.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [159]-167) and index.

ISBN:

0761836306

9780761836308

OCLC:

84541993