I am otherwise : the romance between poetry and theory after the death of the subject / Alex E. Blazer.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Blazer, Alex E.

Series:

Dalkey Archive scholarly series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Watten, Barrett.

Graham, Jorie, 1950-.

Ashbery, John, 1927-2017.

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

American poetry.

Rich, Adrienne, 1929-2012--Criticism and interpretation.

Rich, Adrienne.

Rich, Adrienne, 1929-2012.

Criticism and interpretation.

Ashbery, John, 1927-2017--Criticism and interpretation.

Ashbery, John.

Graham, Jorie, 1950---Criticism and interpretation.

Graham, Jorie.

Watten, Barrett--Criticism and interpretation.

Death in literature.

Subjectivity in literature.

Postmodernism.

Poststructuralism.

Physical Description:

246 pages ; 24 cm.

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

[Normal, Ill.] : Dalkey Archive Press, 2007.

Summary:

I am Otherwise: The Romance between Poetry and Theory after the Death of the Subject examines the contemporary poet's relationship with language in the age of theory. As the book works through close readings and interpretations of Adrienne Rich and Harold Bloom, John Ashbery and Paul de Man, Jorie Graham and Maurice Blanchot, and Barrett Watten and Jacques Lacan, it shows how the main psychological modes of contemporary poetry and the postmodern poet are anxiety, irony, abjection, and destitution. The book ultimately concludes that the new theoretical poetry self-consciously renders the effect of critical theory in its own construction. Whereas poets of the past tarried with nature, self, or philosophy poets of our time unite lyric feeling with literary theory itself.

Contents:

1 Subjectivity, Poetry, Theory, Death

1.1 A Brief History of Death in Poetry 3

1.2 Post-Structuralist Theory Romances Postmodern Poetry 15

1.3 The Blooming Anxiety of Post-Structuralist Thought 21

2 A Rich Inflammation or a Dead Bloom? The Poetry of Adrienne Rich and the Theory of Harold Bloom

2.1 A History of Death in Rich 31

2.2 Blooming with Language / Dying in Language 48

2.3 The Wreck of Language 63

3 John Ashbery's Demand for Self-Reflection

3.1 The Riches and the Limits of Language 78

3.2 From Bloomian Anxiety to de Manian Irony 95

3.3 The Demands of Reading and Writing 108

4 Jorie Graham: Hollows and Voids

4.1 Skinning Matters 129

4.2 The Void of Literature 143

4.3 Outside Indifference 155

5 Barrett Watten: From the Other Side of the Machine

5.1 Anxiety-Irony-Anguish-Obsession 168

5.2 Welcome to the Machine 178

5.3 The Destitute Machine 197

6 The Convergence of Poetry and Theory

6.1 A Brief History of Death in Poetry (Reprise) 212

6.2 When Poetry and Theory Meet 216.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-246).

ISBN:

1564784584

9781564784582

OCLC:

69679983