Synopses & Reviews
Soundand#8212;one of the central elements of poetryand#8212;finds itself all but ignored in the current discourse on lyric forms. The essays collected here by Marjorie Perloff and Craig Dworkinbreak that critical silence to readdress some of thefundamental connections between poetry and soundand#8212;connections that go far beyond traditional metrical studies.
Ranging from medieval Latin lyrics to a cyborg opera, sixteenth-century France to twentieth-century Brazil, romantic ballads to the contemporary avant-garde, the contributors to The Sound of Poetry/The Poetry of Sound explore such subjects as the translatability of lyric sound, the historical and cultural roles of rhyme,the role of sound repetition in novelistic prose, theconnections between and#8220;sound poetryand#8221; and music, between the visual and the auditory, the role of the body in performance, and the impact of recording technologies on the lyric voice. Along the way, the essaystake on the and#8220;ensemble discordsand#8221; of Maurice Scand#232;veand#8217;s Dand#233;lie, Ezra Poundand#8217;s use of and#8220;Chinese whispers,and#8221; the alchemical theology of Hugo Balland#8217;s Dada performances, Jean Cocteauand#8217;s modernist radiophonics, and an intercultural account of the poetry reading as a kind of dubbing.
A genuinely comparatist study, The Sound of Poetry/The Poetry of Sound is designed to challenge current preconceptions about what Susan Howe has called and#8220;articulations of sound forms in timeand#8221; as they have transformed the expanded poetic field of the twenty-first century.
About the Author
Marjorie Perloff is professor of English emerita at Stanford University and author of many books, including Wittgensteinand#8217;s Ladder and The Futurist Moment, both also from the University of Chicago Press. Craig Dworkinis associate professor of English at the University of Utah and the author of, most recently, Language to Cover a Page: The Early Writings of Vito Acconci.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Sound of Poetry / The Poetry of Sound
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Marjorie Perloff and Craig Dworkin
Prelude: Poetry and Oralityand#8194; Jacques Roubaud
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; and#160;(Translated by Jean-Jacques Poucel)
PART I Translating Sound
Rhyme and FreedomSusan Stewart
In the Beginning Was TranslationLeevi Lehto
Chinese WhispersYunte Huang
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Translating the Sound in Poetry: Six Propositions
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Rosmarie Waldrop
and#8220;Ensemble discordsand#8221;: Translating the Music of
Maurice Scand#232;veand#8217;s Dand#233;lieRichard Sieburth
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Poetry of Prose, the Unyielding of Sound
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Gordana P. Crnkoviand#263;
Part II Performing Sound
Sound Poetry and the Musical Avant-Garde:
A Musicologistand#8217;s PerspectiveNancy Perloff0
and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Cacophony, Abstraction, and Potentiality:
The Fate of the Dada Sound PoemSteve McCaffery0
When Cyborgs VersifyChristian Band#246;k
Hearing VoicesCharles Bernstein
Impossible Reversibilities: Jackson Mac LowHand#233;land#232;ne Aji
The Stutter of FormCraig Dworkin
The Art of Being NonsynchronousYoko Tawada
(Translated by Susan Bernofsky)
Part III Sounding the Visualand#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;
Writing Articulation of Sound Forms in TimeSusan Howe
Jean Cocteauand#8217;s Radio PoetryRuband#233;n Gallo
Sound as