Phenomenal Reading

by Reed, Brian M.

• ISBN13: 9780817356941
• ISBN10: 0817356940
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-04
• Publisher: Univ of Alabama Pr

Summary

The essays in Phenomenal Readingentice readers to cross accepted barriers, and highlight the work of poets who challenge language-as-usual in academia and the culture at large. Phenomenal Readingis comprised of essays that are central to how best to read poetry. This book examines individually and collectively poets widely recognized as formal and linguistic innovators. Why do their words appear in unconventional orders? What end do these arrangements serve? Why are they striking? Brian Reed focuses on poetic form as a persistent puzzle, using historical fact and the views of other key critics to clarify how particular literary works are constructed and how those constructions lead to specific effects. Understanding that explication and contextualization do not always sufficiently harness the power of poetry, Reed pursues phenomenological methods that take into account each reader's unique perception of the world. This collection of twelve essays values narrative as a tool for conveying the intricacy, contingency, and richness of poetic experience.

Author Biography

Brian M. Reed is the author of Hart Crane: After His Lights and coeditor of Situating El Lissitzky: Vitebsk, Berlin, Moscow.

Table of Contents

Preface: How Reed Wrote Certain of His Essays	p. ix
Political Reading
Carl Sandburg and the Problem of Bad Political Poetry	p. 3
Tom Raworth and Poetic Intuition	p. 32
Sight and Sound
Ezra Pound's Utopia of the Eye	p. 61
Gertrude Stein Speaks	p. 69
The Baseness of Robert GrenierÆs Visual Poetics	p. 78
Caroline Bergvall Begins Again	p. 83
Writers Reading
Hart Crane and the Challenge of Akron	p. 93
Robert Duncan and Gertrude Stein	p. 110
Reginald Shepherd at Hart Crane's Grave	p. 131
Associative Reading
Rosmarie Waldrop Renews Collage	p. 155
John Ashbery after All These Years	p. 176
The ABCs of Substitutional Poetics	p. 191
Notes	p. 215
Works Cited	p. 231
Index	p. 243
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