Revolutionary Memory: Recovering the Poetry of the American Left

by Nelson,Cary

• ISBN13: 9780415930048
• ISBN10: 0415930049
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-06-04
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Written by a foremost scholar of radical literature. Argues that political poetry is an important part of the American heritage. 50 rare period illustrations. Revolutionary Memoryis the most important book yet to be published about the vital tradition of leftwing American Poetry. AsCary Nelsonshows, it is not only our image of the past but also our sense of the present and future that changes when we recover these revolutionary memories. Making a forceful case for political poetryaspoetry,Nelsonbrings to bear his extraordinary knowledge of American poets, radical movements, and social struggles in order to bring out an undervalued strength in a literature often left at the canon's edge. Focused in part of the red decade of the 1930s,Revolutionary Memoryrevitalizes biographical criticism for writers on the margin and shows us for the first time how progressive poets fused their work into a powerful chorus of political voices. Richly detailed andbeautifully illustrated with period engravings and woodcuts,Revolutionary Memorybrings that chorus dramatically to life and set a cultural agenda for future work.

Author Biography

Cary Nelson is Jubilee Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Modern Poems We Have Wanted to Forget	p. 11
A Poetry Dossier	p. 11
Establishment Memory and Political Poetry	p. 55
The Assault on Langston Hughes	p. 66
Naming Names	p. 75
From the Great Depression to the Red Scare: The Poetry of Edwin Rolfe	p. 87
Poetry as Lived History	p. 87
The Lessons of Spain	p. 108
Poetry Against McCarthyism	p. 125
Poetry Chorus: The Politics of Revolutionary Memory	p. 141
The Community of the Left	p. 141
Tillie Olsen's Sweat Shop Poem	p. 159
Revolution's Collective Voice	p. 165
Poetry Chorus: How Much for Spain?	p. 181
Don Quixote in Prison	p. 181
When Madrid Was the Tomb of Fascism	p. 190
A Lament for Garcia Lorca	p. 226
Exile without End	p. 234
Notes	p. 245
Index	p. 263
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