Objects from a Borrowed Confession

Poetry. Women's Studies. With OBJECTS FROM A BORROWED CONFESSION, poet Julie Carr has undertaken an expansive reexamination, amassing a project written over the last ten years that approaches the subject of confession from within the confession itself. Carr neither mounts an apology on behalf of confessional poets (there is no apology necessary), nor does she offer readers a straightforward critical appraisal of confession in writing itself. Rather, the poet approaches her topic as a theme worthy of consideration, offering fresh insight to what it is about the confessional text that can provide catharsis for one reader just as easily as make another uncomfortable. A one-sided epistolary novella whose speaker writes to an ex-lover's ex-lover begins this volume, and Carr charges these unanswered, unanswerable letters with inquiries that permeate the book: How do we understand grief, obsession, the very nature of forgiveness? Why confess? Whom does my confession benefit? For whom do I intend it? Carr's lyrical prose guides the reader through these questions as each relates to one's perspective, navigating the relationships these texts arise from, or give rise to, by way of inhabiting shared spaces and experiences—not simply stepping into a different persona with each shift in genre. The poet's dexterous handling of these shifts between essay, epistolary, poem, and memoir, allows each movement within the book its own unique melodies, which, taken in whole, create intoxicating harmonies for the attentive listener. The result is a book emotionally complex and intellectually thrilling, brimming with crystalline prose and formal expertise from one of contemporary poetry's most distinct voices.

"OBJECTS FROM A BORROWED CONFESSION vibrate/s with analyrical fervor, situated intimacy shared, a profound anti-generic communicability running over every edge, terribly beautifully trying to get at something. Having been given an all-but-impossible range of revelation, Julie Carr offers careful and intense imperatives for telling sung strained, estranged, touchingly, with an absolute precision of touch, hands laid on what she hands, all up in all she gives, having put her foot in it, too, dancing words with absolute flavor, preparing a table for pleasure and necessity improvised in contact, turning toward everything in turning toward you."—Fred Moten

1125996355
Objects from a Borrowed Confession

Poetry. Women's Studies. With OBJECTS FROM A BORROWED CONFESSION, poet Julie Carr has undertaken an expansive reexamination, amassing a project written over the last ten years that approaches the subject of confession from within the confession itself. Carr neither mounts an apology on behalf of confessional poets (there is no apology necessary), nor does she offer readers a straightforward critical appraisal of confession in writing itself. Rather, the poet approaches her topic as a theme worthy of consideration, offering fresh insight to what it is about the confessional text that can provide catharsis for one reader just as easily as make another uncomfortable. A one-sided epistolary novella whose speaker writes to an ex-lover's ex-lover begins this volume, and Carr charges these unanswered, unanswerable letters with inquiries that permeate the book: How do we understand grief, obsession, the very nature of forgiveness? Why confess? Whom does my confession benefit? For whom do I intend it? Carr's lyrical prose guides the reader through these questions as each relates to one's perspective, navigating the relationships these texts arise from, or give rise to, by way of inhabiting shared spaces and experiences—not simply stepping into a different persona with each shift in genre. The poet's dexterous handling of these shifts between essay, epistolary, poem, and memoir, allows each movement within the book its own unique melodies, which, taken in whole, create intoxicating harmonies for the attentive listener. The result is a book emotionally complex and intellectually thrilling, brimming with crystalline prose and formal expertise from one of contemporary poetry's most distinct voices.

"OBJECTS FROM A BORROWED CONFESSION vibrate/s with analyrical fervor, situated intimacy shared, a profound anti-generic communicability running over every edge, terribly beautifully trying to get at something. Having been given an all-but-impossible range of revelation, Julie Carr offers careful and intense imperatives for telling sung strained, estranged, touchingly, with an absolute precision of touch, hands laid on what she hands, all up in all she gives, having put her foot in it, too, dancing words with absolute flavor, preparing a table for pleasure and necessity improvised in contact, turning toward everything in turning toward you."—Fred Moten

18.0 In Stock
Objects from a Borrowed Confession

Objects from a Borrowed Confession

by Julie Carr
Objects from a Borrowed Confession

Objects from a Borrowed Confession

by Julie Carr

Paperback

$18.00 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    In stock. Ships in 1-2 days.
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview


Poetry. Women's Studies. With OBJECTS FROM A BORROWED CONFESSION, poet Julie Carr has undertaken an expansive reexamination, amassing a project written over the last ten years that approaches the subject of confession from within the confession itself. Carr neither mounts an apology on behalf of confessional poets (there is no apology necessary), nor does she offer readers a straightforward critical appraisal of confession in writing itself. Rather, the poet approaches her topic as a theme worthy of consideration, offering fresh insight to what it is about the confessional text that can provide catharsis for one reader just as easily as make another uncomfortable. A one-sided epistolary novella whose speaker writes to an ex-lover's ex-lover begins this volume, and Carr charges these unanswered, unanswerable letters with inquiries that permeate the book: How do we understand grief, obsession, the very nature of forgiveness? Why confess? Whom does my confession benefit? For whom do I intend it? Carr's lyrical prose guides the reader through these questions as each relates to one's perspective, navigating the relationships these texts arise from, or give rise to, by way of inhabiting shared spaces and experiences—not simply stepping into a different persona with each shift in genre. The poet's dexterous handling of these shifts between essay, epistolary, poem, and memoir, allows each movement within the book its own unique melodies, which, taken in whole, create intoxicating harmonies for the attentive listener. The result is a book emotionally complex and intellectually thrilling, brimming with crystalline prose and formal expertise from one of contemporary poetry's most distinct voices.

"OBJECTS FROM A BORROWED CONFESSION vibrate/s with analyrical fervor, situated intimacy shared, a profound anti-generic communicability running over every edge, terribly beautifully trying to get at something. Having been given an all-but-impossible range of revelation, Julie Carr offers careful and intense imperatives for telling sung strained, estranged, touchingly, with an absolute precision of touch, hands laid on what she hands, all up in all she gives, having put her foot in it, too, dancing words with absolute flavor, preparing a table for pleasure and necessity improvised in contact, turning toward everything in turning toward you."—Fred Moten


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781934103685
Publisher: Ahsahta Press
Publication date: 06/01/2017
Pages: 160
Product dimensions: 6.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author


Julie Carr is the author of six books of poetry, most recently 100 NOTES ON VIOLENCE, RAG, THINK TANK, and OBJECTS FROM A BORROWED CONFESSION. She is also the author of Surface Tension: Ruptural Time and the Poetics of Desire in Late Victorian Poetry and the co-translator of Leslie Kaplan's Excess-the Factory. She regularly collaborates with dance artist K.J. Holmes and is the co-founder of Counterpath Press and Counterpath Gallery.

Table of Contents

What do we want to Know 1

Objects from a Borrowed Confession 25

The War Reporter: On Confession 45

Destroyed Works (Or, Expanded Cinema) 61

The Light of is is: On Anger 67

Envy 75

Destroyed Works 2 81

Pity Pride and Shame: A Memoir 85

Pity Pride and Shame 87

Bales of Hay 90

A New Idolatry 92

By Beauty and by Fear 95

More of the Same 97

Hard Task 101

Strands of Man in Me 106

For the Day is Breaking 107

And Chill Thy Dreaming Nights 110

By Beauty and By Fear: On Narrative Time 113

That's Not Me: An Afterthought 133

Notes 143

Acknowledgments 143

Quotations 144

Sources 146

About the Author 149

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews