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.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (199 pages)

Place of Publication:

Montreal : 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.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

“The Bees Come Booming„

“One Kind of Knowledge„

“Un coup de dés„

The Vanishing Point of Meaning

“To Undo the Creature„

Praxis and Poiesis

The Future Library and the Xenotext

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-2280-0305-9

OCLC:

1131681770