In this Book

buy this book Buy This Book in Print
summary
In The Edge of Modernism, Walter Kalaidjian explores American poetry on genocide, the Holocaust, and total war as well as on postwar social antagonisms, racial oppression, and domestic violence. By asking what it means for traumatic memory to have agency in the American verse tradition, Kalaidjian creates an original historical account of how American poets became witnesses, often unconsciously, to modern extremity. Combining psychoanalytic theory and cultural studies, this intense, sweeping account of modern poetics analyzes the ways in which literary form gives testimony to the trauma of twentieth-century history. Through close readings of well-known and less familiar poets—among them Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Claude McKay, Edwin Rolfe, Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Peter Balakian, Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Anne Sexton, and Anthony Hecht—Kalaidjian discerns the latent "edge" of modern trauma as it cuts through the literary representations, themes, and formal techniques of twentieth-century American poetics. In this way, The Edge of Modernism advances an innovative and dynamic model of modern periodization.

Table of Contents

Download EPUB Download Full EPUB
  1. Cover
  2. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page
  2. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Copyright Page, Dedication
  2. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Contents
  2. pp. vii-viii
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Acknowledgments
  2. pp. ix-x
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Introduction
  2. pp. 1-14
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. History's Black Page: Genocide and Modern American Verse
  2. pp. 15-48
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. The Holocaust at Home
  2. pp. 49-107
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Harlem Dancers and the Middle Passage
  2. pp. 108-127
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Specters of Commitment in Modern American Literary Studies
  2. pp. 128-156
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. The Enigma of Witness: Domestic Trauma on and off the Couch
  2. pp. 157-188
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Epilogue
  2. pp. 189-196
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Notes
  2. pp. 197-230
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Index
  2. pp. 231-239
  3. open access
    • View HTML View
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Without cookies your experience may not be seamless.