Synopses & Reviews
At the close of the Second World War, modernist poets found themselves in an increasingly scientific world, where natural and social sciences claimed exclusive rights to knowledge of both matter and mind. Following the overthrow of the Newtonian worldview and the recent, shocking displays of the power of the atom, physics led the way, with other disciplines often turning to the methods and discoveries of physics for inspiration.
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
In Physics Envy, Peter Middleton examines the influence of science, particularly physics, on American poetry since World War II. He focuses on such diverse poets as Charles Olson, Muriel Rukeyser, Amiri Baraka, and Rae Armantrout, among others, revealing how the methods and language of contemporary natural and social sciencesandmdash;and even the discourse of the leading popular science magazine Scientific Americanandmdash;shaped their work. The relationship, at times, extended in the other direction as well: leading physicists such as Robert Oppenheimer, Werner Heisenberg, and Erwin Schrandouml;dinger were interested in whether poetry might help them explain the strangeness of the new, quantum world. Physics Envy is a history of science and poetry that shows how ultimately each serves to illuminate the other in its quest for the true nature of things.
Review
andquot;Middleton explores insightfully and sensitively how American poets from Rukeyser to Armantrout respond to poetryandrsquo;s de-privileging as a source of epistemological knowledge; it is genuinely exciting to see prominent scientists such as Oppenheimer and Feynman, as well as an array of mid-twentieth-century social scientists, treated as thinkers who can help us better understand Cold Warandndash;era literature. As always, Middleton is an acute analyst, writing lucidly whether treating abstruse concepts in nuclear physics or presenting the ins and outs of experimental verse. Physics Envy is a delight to read.andquot;
Review
andquot;We know a good deal about the cold war eraandrsquo;s investment in science, but we know less about the extent to which poets drew upon the contributions of quantum physics, cybernetics, and relativity theory in forging a new poetics. Peter Middleton makes an excellent case for the generative impact of science on open field poetics, showing how Charles Olson, Muriel Rukeyser, Robert Duncan, and others adapted (and occasionally mis-read) the work of Heisenberg, Weiner, Schrandouml;dinger and social scientists like Kurt Lewin. Physics Envy is the definitive treatment of a vital conversation between poetic theory and scientific innovation in the postwar period.andquot;
Review
andquot;An original and valuable contribution to our understanding of the relations between poetry and the sciences in the United States during the mid-twentieth century. Especially of interest are the close readings of articles, whole issues, and advertisements from Scientific American in relation to specific poems and sequencesandmdash;a fruitful approach, and, given Scientific Americanandrsquo;s success and status as the publication presenting the public face of science in North America, an excellent way to reveal the multiplicity and nuance of poetic practice in its engagement with scientific language, values, and discoveries.andquot;
Synopsis
The Culture of Spontaneity is the first comprehensive history of the postwar avant-garde. Daniel Belgrad shows how a startling variety of artistic movements actually had one unifying theme: spontaneous improvisation.
Synopsis
The Culture of Spontaneity is the first comprehensive history of the postwar avant-garde, integrating such diverse moments in American culture as abstract expressionism, bebop jazz, gestalt therapy, Black Mountain College, Jungian psychology, beat poetry, experimental dance, Zen Buddhism, Alfred North Whitehead's cosmology, and the antinuclear movement. Daniel Belgrad shows how a startling variety of artistic movements actually had one unifying theme: spontaneous improvisation.
"A compelling narrative, putting living flesh on shorthand intuitions that connect North Beach to Black Mountain College, Fenollosa to Pollock, Jackson Lears's No Place of Grace to Todd Gitlin's The Sixties."and#8212;Joel Smith, Boston Review
"An invaluable introduction to postwar modernism across the arts."and#8212;Thomas Augst, Boston Book Review
"Belgrad's extensive probing of the artists and movements with their profound sociological roots is timely as well as comprehensive....A major contribution for serious scholars."and#8212;Choice
Synopsis
The Culture of Spontaneity is the first comprehensive history of the postwar avant-garde, integrating such diverse moments in American culture as abstract expressionism, bebop jazz, gestalt therapy, Black Mountain College, Jungian psychology, beat poetry, experimental dance, Zen Buddhism, Alfred North Whitehead's cosmology, and the antinuclear movement. Daniel Belgrad shows how a startling variety of artistic movements actually had one unifying theme: spontaneous improvisation.
A compelling narrative, putting living flesh on shorthand intuitions that connect North Beach to Black Mountain College, Fenollosa to Pollock, Jackson Lears's No Place of Grace to Todd Gitlin's The Sixties.--Joel Smith, Boston Review
An invaluable introduction to postwar modernism across the arts.--Thomas Augst, Boston Book Review
Belgrad's extensive probing of the artists and movements with their profound sociological roots is timely as well as comprehensive....A major contribution for serious scholars.--Choice
Synopsis
In Physics Envy, Peter Middleton argues that science has had a strong influence on the course of American poetry since WWII. He focuses on poets as different as Charles Olsen, Robert Duncan, John Ashbery, and others, and how they responded to advances in science (especially physics) in the development of ambitious poetry programs and poetics. For Middleton, the major shift came in the 1970s, when the more traditional New American poetry gave way to the experiments of Language poetry, and he shows surprising correlations between how poetry was conceived and written, on the one hand, and the advances in physics, chemistry, and biology at the time, on the other. Though it was discoveries in physics (e.g., the atomic bomb) that started this and#147;science envyand#8221; after the war, Middleton finds poets borrowing and adapting language from the other sciences as well, for example, the way the language and concepts used by biologists were taken up by poets and poetry theorists to create their own recombinant poetics of language, often calling what they did, however abstract, inquiries and experiments in language. Even the ideas and language from the leading popular scientific journal, Scientific American, began appearing in poems in magazines and books. And a poet like Gary Snyder, whose work seems to be inspired by Buddhist and shamanistic sources, also draws, as Middleton shows, on ecological scienceand#151;sometimes directly from textbooks on the subject. Middleton writes a history of science and poetry that shows how they throw beneficial light on each otherand#8217;s dilemmas, and uncovers areas of unacknowledged exchanges of ideas between poets and scientists. As Middleton shows, poetry since WWII can often be read as a thoughtful, productive quarrel between the Oppenheimers and Watsons of science, and poets and poetic experimenters attempting an intellectual inquiry into the nature of things. Poets and poetry critics, literary historians, and those in history and philosophy of science will want to read this book.
About the Author
Peter Middleton is professor of English at the University of Southampton. He is the author of three books of scholarship, most recently Distant Reading: Performance, Readership, and Consumption in Contemporary Poetry, and a book of poetry, Aftermath; and he is the coeditor of Teaching Modernist Poetry. He lives in Southampton.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I Poetry and Science
1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Poetic Universe: Mapping Interrelations between Modern American Poetry and the Sciences
2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; What the Physicist Said to the Poet: How Physicists Used the Ideal of Poetry to Talk about Uncertainty
Part II Midcentury
3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Projective Verse: Fields in Science and Poetics at Midcentury
4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Conceptual Schemes: The Midcentury Poetics of Muriel Rukeyser and Charles Olson
5and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Stories, Geometries, and Angels: Muriel Rukeyser, Charles Olson, and Robert and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Duncan in the 1950s
Part III Scientific Americans
6and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Scientific American Poetry: Rae Armantrout, Jackson Mac Low, and Robert Duncan
7and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Defying Social Science: George Oppen and Amiri Baraka
Coda
Notes
Index