Disjunctive Poetics

Disjunctive Poetics examines some of the experimental contemporary writers whose work forms a counterpoint to the mainstream writing of our time. Peter Quartermain suggests that the explosion of such modern writing is linked to the severe political, social, and economic dislocation of non-English speaking immigrants who, bringing alternative culture with them as they passed through Ellis Island in their hundreds of thousands at the turn of the century, found themselves uprooted from their tradition and disassociated from their culture. The line of American poetry that runs from Gertrude Stein through Louis Zukofsky and the Objectivists to the Language Writers, Quartermain contends, is not the constructive but deconstructive aspect that emphasized the materiality and ambiguity of the linguistic medium and the arbitrariness and openness of the creative process.

• Will be of interest to specialists in American avant-garde writing • Presents an interesting view of both the literature and the culture of early twentieth-century America

Preface; Acknowledgements of copyright material; Introduction; 1. \'A narrative of undermine\': Gertrude Stein\'s multiplicity; 2. Recurrencies: no. 12 of Louis Zukofsky\'s Anew; 3. \'Instant entirety\': Zukofsky\'s \'A\';4. \'Not at all surprised by science\': Louis Zukofsky\'s First Half of \'A\' - 9; 5. \'Actual word stuff, not thoughts for thoughts\': Williams and Zukofsky; 6. \'Only is order othered. Nought is nulled\': Finnegan\'s Wake and middle and late Zukofsky; 7. \'To make glad the heart of man\': Bunting, Pound and Whitman; 8. Six plaints and a lament for Basil Bunting; 9. Exploring the mere: a note on Charles Reznikoff\'s shorter poems; 10. Robert Creeley what counts; 11. \'Go contrary, go sing\': Robert Duncan 1919–1988; 12. Writing as assemblage: Guy Davenport; 13. And the without: an interpretive essay on Susan Howe; Notes; Index.

‘Articulate, resourceful readings of the decisive poetry of our time, beginning with Gertrude Stein and continuing to the latest, crucial ground work of Susan Howe. Truly a pioneering work.’ Robert Creely

‘In their spirited engagement with seemingly recalcitrant material, these superb essays are sure to become classics of their kind.’ Marjorie Perloff