In this Book
- Intricate Thicket: Reading Late Modernist Poetries
- Book
- 2015
- Published by: The University of Alabama Press
- Series: Modern and Contemporary Poetics
summary
In Intricate Thicket: Reading Late Modernist Poetries, Mark Scroggins writes with wit and dash about a fascinating range of key twentieth- and twenty-first-century poets and writers. In nineteen lively and accessible essays, he persuasively argues that the innovations of modernist verse were not replaced by postmodernism, but rather those innovations continue to infuse contemporary writing and poetry with intellectual and aesthetic richness.
In these essays, Scroggins reviews the legacy of Louis Zukofsky, delineates the exceptional influence of the Black Mountain poets, and provides close readings of a wealth of examples of poetic works from poets who have carried the modernist legacy into contemporary poetry. He traces with an insider’s keen observation the careers of many of the most dynamic, innovative, and celebrated poets of the past half-century, among them Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ronald Johnson, Rae Armantrout, Harryette Mullen, and Anne Carson.
In a concluding pair of essays, Scroggins situates his own practice within the broad currents he has described. He reflects on his own aesthetics as a contemporary poet and, drawing on his extensive study and writing about Louis Zukofsky, examines the practical and theoretical challenges of literary biography.
While the core of these essays is the interpretation of poetry, Scroggins also offers clear aesthetic evaluations of the successes and failures of the poetries he examines. Scroggins engages with complex and challenging works, and yet his highly accessible descriptions and criticisms avoid theoretical entanglements and specialized jargon. Intricate Thicket yields subtle and multifaceted insights to experts and newcomers alike.
In these essays, Scroggins reviews the legacy of Louis Zukofsky, delineates the exceptional influence of the Black Mountain poets, and provides close readings of a wealth of examples of poetic works from poets who have carried the modernist legacy into contemporary poetry. He traces with an insider’s keen observation the careers of many of the most dynamic, innovative, and celebrated poets of the past half-century, among them Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ronald Johnson, Rae Armantrout, Harryette Mullen, and Anne Carson.
In a concluding pair of essays, Scroggins situates his own practice within the broad currents he has described. He reflects on his own aesthetics as a contemporary poet and, drawing on his extensive study and writing about Louis Zukofsky, examines the practical and theoretical challenges of literary biography.
While the core of these essays is the interpretation of poetry, Scroggins also offers clear aesthetic evaluations of the successes and failures of the poetries he examines. Scroggins engages with complex and challenging works, and yet his highly accessible descriptions and criticisms avoid theoretical entanglements and specialized jargon. Intricate Thicket yields subtle and multifaceted insights to experts and newcomers alike.
Table of Contents
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- Acknowledgments
- pp. ix-x
- Introduction
- pp. xi-xvi
- I. Longer Views
- Ronald Johnson: Four Essays
- pp. 108-160
- One Last Modernist: Guy Davenport
- pp. 161-188
- II. Shorter Takes
- The Piety of Terror: Ian Hamilton Finlay
- pp. 191-200
- Mules and Drugs and R&B: Harryette Mullen
- pp. 201-206
- Woodpaths, Obscure: Norman Finkelstein
- pp. 207-212
- A New Negative Capability: Michael Heller
- pp. 213-219
- “The Lighthouses”: George Oppen
- pp. 220-223
- Sound and Vision: John Taggart
- pp. 224-230
- III. Poetics
- A Fragmentary Poetics: On Writing Poems
- pp. 247-264
- Works Cited
- pp. 265-276
Additional Information
ISBN
9780817388065
Related ISBN(s)
9780817358044
MARC Record
OCLC
918892809
Pages
304
Launched on MUSE
2015-08-20
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2015