American Poetry after Modernism The Power of the Word [Hardcover]

Albert Gelpi's American Poetry after Modernism is a study of sixteen major American poets of the postwar period.Albert Gelpi's American Poetry after Modernism is a study of sixteen major American poets of the postwar period, from Robert Lowell to Adrienne Rich. Gelpi argues that a distinctly American poetic tradition was solidified in the later half the twentieth century, thus severing it from British conventions.Albert Gelpi's American Poetry after Modernism is a study of sixteen major American poets of the postwar period, from Robert Lowell to Adrienne Rich. Gelpi argues that a distinctly American poetic tradition was solidified in the later half the twentieth century, thus severing it from British conventions.Albert Gelpi's American Poetry after Modernism is a study of major poets of the postwar period from Robert Lowell and Adrienne Rich through the Language poets. He argues that what distinguishes American poetry from the British tradition is, paradoxically, the lack of a tradition; as a result, each poet has to ask fundamental questions about the role of the poet and the nature of the medium, has to invent a language and form for his or her purposes. Exploring this paradox through detailed critical readings of the work of fourteen poets, Gelpi presents an original and insightful argument about late twentieth century American poetry and about the historical development of a distinctively American poetry.1. Twentieth-century poetics: an overview; 2. The language of crisis: Robert Lowell and John Berryman; 3. The language of flux: Elizabeth Bishop and John Ashbery; 4. The language of incarnation: Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, and William Everson; 5. The language of witness: Adrienne Rich; 6. The language of vision: Denise Levertov and Robert Duncan; 7. The language of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E: Robert Creeley, Michael Palmer, Lyn Hejinian, Robert Grenier, Susan Howe, and Fanny Howe.