John Ashbery and English Poetry
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press
Published:6th Mar '12
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
A study of how we should read one of America's most important poets Ben Hickman argues that we must attend to Ashbery's radical conception of reading if we are to understand the originality of his writing. His study focuses on Ashbery's reading of English poets, including Andrew Marvell, John Donne, William Wordsworth, John Clare, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden, and examines Ashbery's writing in terms of an 'aesthetic of inattention'. Hickman critiques the Americanisation of Ashbery's work as well as common assumptions about his Romanticism, his avant-garde Modernism and his engagement with the historical present. He demonstrates that Ashbery's generosity as a writer is closely tied to his generosity, inattention and situatedness as a reader. Key Features * Original new reading of Ashbery's affinities with English poetry and his engagement with different poets and traditions * Draws on research undertaken at the Houghton archive, where Ashbery's papers are held * Innovative approach will help reshape the critical apparatus for appreciating contemporary poetry as a whole
An individual and authoritative reading of one of the great poets of our time. In discussing Ashbery, Hickman also brilliantly evokes the English poets who influenced him, from Donne through Clare and the moderns. Hickman writes with clarity and depth of knowledge. He is rooted in the American yet also, and deeply, in the British and Continental traditions which most matter to an understanding of Ashbery's and most post-Modern American and British poetry. He relocates Ashbery's poems within the zones where they actually belong and where they tell us they belong. -- Michael Schmidt, Professor of Poetry, University of Glasgow An individual and authoritative reading of one of the great poets of our time. In discussing Ashbery, Hickman also brilliantly evokes the English poets who influenced him, from Donne through Clare and the moderns. Hickman writes with clarity and depth of knowledge. He is rooted in the American yet also, and deeply, in the British and Continental traditions which most matter to an understanding of Ashbery's and most post-Modern American and British poetry. He relocates Ashbery's poems within the zones where they actually belong and where they tell us they belong.
ISBN: 9780748644759
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 459g
200 pages