A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination

A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination

by Angus Fletcher
A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination
A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination

A New Theory for American Poetry: Democracy, the Environment, and the Future of Imagination

by Angus Fletcher

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Overview

Amid gloomy forecasts of the decline of the humanities and the death of poetry, Angus Fletcher, a wise and dedicated literary voice, sounds a note of powerful, tempered optimism. He lays out a fresh approach to American poetry at large, the first in several decades, expounding a defense of the art that will resonate well into the new century.

Breaking with the tired habit of treating American poets as the happy or rebellious children of European romanticism, Fletcher uncovers a distinct lineage for American poetry. His point of departure is the fascinating English writer, John Clare; he then centers on the radically American vision expressed by Emerson and Walt Whitman. With Whitman this book insists that "the whole theory and nature of poetry" needs inspiration from science if it is to achieve a truly democratic vista. Drawing variously on Complexity Theory and on fundamentals of art and grammar, Fletcher argues that our finest poetry is nature-based, environmentally shaped, and descriptive in aim, enabling poets like John Ashbery and other contemporaries to discover a mysterious pragmatism.

Intense, resonant, and deeply literary, this account of an American poetics shows how today's consumerist and conformist culture subverts the imagination of a free people. While centering on American vision, the argument extends our horizon, striking a blow against all economically sanctioned attacks upon the finer, stronger human capacities. Poetry, the author maintains, is central to any coherent vision of life.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780674037014
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Publication date: 07/01/2009
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 336
File size: 429 KB

About the Author

Angus Fletcher is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the City University of New York Graduate School.

Table of Contents

Contents Introduction 1. Clare’s Horizon 2. The Argument of Form 3. Description 4. Ashbery’s Clare 5. Diurnal Knowledge 6. The Whitman Phrase 7. The Environment-Poem 8. Waves and the Troping of Poetic Form 9. Middle Voice 10. Ashbery and the Becoming of the Poem 11. Meditating Chaos and Complexity 12. “The Long Amazing and Unprecedented Way” 13. Coherence 14. Precious Idiosyncrasy: An Epilogue Notes Index

What People are Saying About This

This is one of the most important books about poetic imagination of the past half-century. Lucid, generous in scholarly breadth, Fletcher analyzes our ideas of personal autonomy and political dependency. The book contains some of the most original discussions of John Clare, Walt Whitman, and John Ashbery I have ever seen. Fletcher's own independent energies and philosophical learning help shape a brilliant exploration of environment and its representation.

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