After the program era : the past, present, and future of creative writing in the university / edited by Loren Glass.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Glass, Loren, editor.

Series:

New American canon

The New American canon

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Creative writing (Higher education).

American fiction--Study and teaching.

American fiction.

Literature--Study and teaching (Higher).

Literature.

Physical Description:

277 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Iowa City : The University of Iowa Press, [2016]

Summary:

"The publication in 2009 of Mark McGurl's The Program Era provoked a sea change in the study of postwar literature. Even though almost every English department in the United States housed some version of a creative writing program by the time of its publication, literary scholars had not previously considered that this institutional phenomenon was historically significant. McGurl's groundbreaking book effectively established that "the rise of the creative writing program stands as the most important event in postwar American literary history," forcing us to revise our understanding not only of the relationship between higher education and literary production, but also of the periodizing terminology we had previously used to structure our understanding of twentieth-century literature. After the Program Era explores the consequences and implications, as well as the lacunae and liabilities, of McGurl's foundational intervention. Glass focuses only on American fiction and the traditional MFA program, and this collection aims to expand and examine its insights in terms of other genres and sites. Postwar poetry, in particular, has until now been neglected as a product of the Program Era, even though it is, arguably, a "purer" example, since poets now depend almost entirely on the patronage of the university. Similarly, this collection looks beyond the traditional MFA writing program to explore the pre-history of writing programs in American universities, as well as alternatives to the traditionally structured program that have emerged along the way. Taken together, the essays in After the Program Era seek to answer and explore many of these questions and continue the conversations McGurl only began. CONTRIBUTORS Seth Abramson, Greg Barnhisel, Eric Bennett, Matthew Blackwell, Kelly Budruweit, Mike Chasar, Simon During, Donal Harris, Michael Hill, Benjamin Kirbach, Sean McCann, Mark McGurl, Marija Rieff, Juliana Spahr, Stephen Voyce, Stephanie Young"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1 Introduction. From the Pound Era to the Program Era, and Beyond / Loren Glass Glass, Loren

Part I Antecedents

Chapter 1 The Creative Calling / Marija Reiff Reiff, Marija 11

Chapter 2 From Vagabond to Visiting Poet: Vachel Lindsay and the Institutionalization of American Poetry / Mike Chasar Chasar, Mike 21

Chapter 3 Institutional Itinerancy: Malcolm Cowley and the Domestication of Cosmopolitanism / Benjamin Kirbach Kirbach, Benjamin 39

Part II Revisions

Chapter 4 Modernism and the MFA / Greg Barnhisel Barnhisel, Greg 55

Chapter 5 Flannery O'Connor, the Cold War, and the Canon / Eric Bennett Bennett, Eric 67

Chapter 6 Alternative Degrees: "Works in OPEN" at Black Mountain College / Stephen Voyce Voyce, Stephen 85

Chapter 7 Robert Coover, Hypertext, and the Technomodern Pedagogy of Fairy Tales / Kelly Budruweit Budruweit, Kelly 105

Chapter 8 What We Talk about When We Talk about Lish / Matthew Blackwell Blackwell, Matthew 113

Chapter 9 Timely Exile: James Alan McPherson, the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and Black Creativity / Michael Hill Hill, Michael 123

Chapter 10 The Program Era and the Mainly White Room / Juliana Spahr Spahr, Juliana, Stephanie Young Young, Stephanie 137

Chapter 11 Humanities Fiction: A Genre / Simon During During, Simon 177

Part III Prospects

Chapter 12 "My Ghost Life": Russell Banks and the Limits of Aesthetic Democracy / Sean Mccann Mccann, Sean 195

Chapter 13 Getting Real: From Mass Modernism to Peripheral Realism / Donal Harris Harris, Donal 219

Chapter 14 From Modernism to Metamodernism: Quantifying and Theorizing the Stages of the Program Era / Seth Abramson Abramson, Seth 233.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781609384395

1609384393

OCLC:

964584816