Synopses & Reviews
Considered one of andldquo;our best outsidersandrdquo; by the
New York Times, Charles Bernstein is a leading voice in American poetry. With the essays in this volume, he offers an unorthodox readerandrsquo;s guide to modernist and contemporary poetics.
Displaying Bernsteinandrsquo;s characteristic mix of rigor and playfulness, Pitch of Poetry explores poetryandrsquo;s ties with politics, rhetoric, and ideology. Subjects include Holocaust representation, the poetics of Occupy Wall Street, and the figurative nature of abstract art. The book provides detailed overviews of formally inventive poetry, including essays onandmdash;or andldquo;pitchesandrdquo; forandndash;andndash;a set of key poets, from Gertrude Stein and Louis Zukofsky to Robert Creeley, John Ashbery, and Barbara Guest.and#160; In interviews and essays, Bernstein also reveals the formative ideas behind L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, the magazine he coedited with Bruce Andrews from 1978 to 1981. The final section, published here for the first time, is a sweeping work on the poetics of stigma, perversity, disability, and barbarism. Rooted in the thinking of Edgar Allan Poe, the essay discusses Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Blake, and others within the context of controversial issues in current poetics.
Taken as a whole, Pitch of Poetry makes an exhilarating case for what Bernstein calls echopoetics: a poetry of call and response, reason and imagination, disfiguration and refiguration. A fascinating collection of works, this volume is an essential addition to every poetry loverandrsquo;s library.
Synopsis
Praised in recent years as a calculating, improvisatory, essential poet by Daisy Fried in the New York Times, Charles Bernstein is a leading voice in American literary theory. Pitch of Poetry is his irreverent guide to modernist and contemporary poetics.
Subjects range across Holocaust representation, Occupy Wall Street, and the figurative nature of abstract art. Detailed overviews of formally inventive work include essays on or pitches for a set of key poets, from Gertrude Stein and Robert Creeley to John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Larry Eigner, and Leslie Scalapino. Bernstein also reveals the formative ideas behind the magazineL=A=N=G=U=A=G=E. The final section, published here for the first time, is a sweeping work on the poetics of stigma, perversity, and disability that is rooted in the thinking of Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and William Blake.
Pitch of Poetrymakes an exhilarating case for what Bernstein callsechopoetics a poetry of call and response, reason and imagination, disfiguration and refiguration."
About the Author
Charles Bernstein is the Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is codirector of PennSound. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the author of many books, including, most recently, Recalculating, also published by the University of Chicago Press.