Poetry and the limits of modernity in Depression America / Justin Parks.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parks, Justin, 1980- author.

Series:

Cambridge studies in American literature and culture

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Depressions in literature.

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

American poetry.

Literature and society--United States--History--20th century.

Literature and society.

Modernism (Literature)--United States.

Modernism (Literature).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 222 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2023.

Summary:

Furnishing a novel take on the poetry of the 1930s within the context of the cultural history of the Depression, this book argues that the period's economic and cultural crisis was accompanied by an epistemological crisis in which cultural producers increasingly cast doubt on language in its ability to represent society. Poetry and the Limits of Modernity in Depression America pursues this guiding premise through six chapters, each framing the problem of the ongoing vitality of language as a social medium with respect to a particular poet: Louis Zukofsky and the commodification of language; Muriel Rukeyser and documentary photography; Charles Reznikoff and Depression-era historiography; Sterling A. Brown and the blues as both an ethnographic phenomenon and a marketable cultural product; Norman Macleod and Southwest regionalism; and Lorine Niedecker and ethnographic surrealism. The book closes by examining the shifting status of the poet as society transitioned from a focus on production to an emphasis on consumption in the Post-war period.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 22 Sep 2023).

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9781009347808 (ebook)

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.