The poetic imperative : a speculative aesthetics / Johanna Skibsrud.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Skibsrud, Johanna, 1980- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Poetry, Modern--History and criticism.

Poetry, Modern.

Poetics.

Self in literature.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Physical Description:

xi, 185 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2020]

Summary:

"This book aims to expand our sense of poetry's reach and potential impact. It is an effort at recouping the poetic imperative buried within the first taxonomic description of human being: "nosce te ipsum," or "know yourself." Johanna Skibsrud explores both poetry and human being not as fixed categories but as active processes of self-reflection and considers the way that human being is constantly activated within and through language and thinking. By examining a range of modern and contemporary poets including Wallace Stevens, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Anne Carson, all with an interest in playfully disrupting sense and logic and eliciting unexpected connections, The Poetic Imperative highlights the relationship between the practice of writing and reading and a broad tradition of speculative thought. It also seeks to demonstrate that the imperative "know yourself" functions not only as a command to speak and listen, but also as a call to action and feeling. The book argues that poetic modes of knowing--though central to poetry understood as a genre--are also at the root of any conscious effort to move beyond the subjective limits of language and selfhood in the hopes of touching upon the unknown. Engaging and erudite, The Poetic Imperative is an invitation to direct our attention simultaneously to the finite and embodied limits of selfhood, as well as to what those limits touch: the infinite, the Other, and truth itself."-- Provided by publisher.

"This book aims to expand our sense of poetry's reach and potential impact. It is an effort at recouping the poetic imperative buried within the first taxonomic description of human being: “nosce te ipsum,” or “know yourself.” Johanna Skibsrud explores both poetry and human being not as fixed categories but as active processes of self-reflection and considers the way that human being is constantly activated within and through language and thinking. By examining a range of modern and contemporary poets including Wallace Stevens, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Anne Carson, all with an interest in playfully disrupting sense and logic and eliciting unexpected connections, The Poetic Imperative highlights the relationship between the practice of writing and reading and a broad tradition of speculative thought. It also seeks to demonstrate that the imperative “know yourself” functions not only as a command to speak and listen, but also as a call to action and feeling. The book argues that poetic modes of knowing--though central to poetry understood as a genre--are also at the root of any conscious effort to move beyond the subjective limits of language and selfhood in the hopes of touching upon the unknown. Engaging and erudite, The Poetic Imperative is an invitation to direct our attention simultaneously to the finite and embodied limits of selfhood, as well as to what those limits touch: the infinite, the Other, and truth itself."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

"Bees come booming": a poetics of "as if"

"One kind of knowledge": poetry and belief

"Un coup de dés": the secret history of poetry - and its imaginary future

Vanishing point of meaning: "making sense" of the fugal past

"To undo the creature": the paradox of writing

Praxis and poiesis: the subversive structures of poetry and human being

Future library and the xenotext: poetry and the futurism of the present.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [171]-181) and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Skibsrud, Johanna, 1980- Poetic imperative.

ISBN:

0228001706

9780228001706

OCLC:

1126212130