American Poetry as Transactional Art

257 Pages·2020·8.178 MB·English

by  Stephen Fredman (author)

Ameri can Poetry as Transactional Art
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETICS
SERIES EDITORS
Charles Bernstein
Hank Lazer
SERIES ADVISORY BOARD
Maria Damon
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Alan Golding
Susan Howe
Nathaniel Mackey
Jerome McGann
Harryette Mullen
Aldon Nielsen
Marjorie Perloff
Joan Retallack
Ron Silliman
Jerry Ward
Ameri can Poetry
as Transactional Art
STEPHEN FREDMAN
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALA BAMA PRESS TUSCALOOSA
The University of Alab ama Press
Tuscaloosa, Ala bama 35487- 0380
uapress.ua.edu
Copyright © 2020 by the University of Ala bama Press
All rights reserved.
Inquiries about reproducing material from this work should
be addressed to the University of Ala bama Press.
Typeface: Scala and Scala Sans
Cover image: Untitled pigment print, 2018, by Faiya Fredman,
from her Graffiti Goddess series; courtesy of the artist
Cover design: Michele Myatt Quinn
Cataloging- in- Publication data is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 5981- 2
E- ISBN: 978- 0- 8173- 9294- 9
For Gerald L. Bruns and Marjorie Perloff
Treasured Partners in Conversation

Contents
List of Figures ix
Preface xi
Introduction 1
POETRY & SPIRIT: AGAINST ORTHODOXY
1. Why Mysticism in Twentieth- Century Americ an Poetry? 11
2. Jerome Rothenberg’s Technicians of the Sacred: Transactions between the
Indigenous and the Avant- Garde 30
3. Judaism as Loss and the Buddhist Element in Michael Heller’s Eschaton 46
POETRY & ITS TIME: REVISING LITERARY HISTORY
4. “And All Now Is War”: George Oppen, Charles Olson, and Literary
Generations 59
5. “The Lordly and Isolate Satyrs”: Charles Olson’s Contemporaries 67
6. Laurie Anderson in the Reagan Era 83
POETRY & THE ARTS: MULTIMEDIA EXCHANGE
7. Robert Creeley, Marisol, and Presences as Transaction Network 103
8. The Language Art of David Antin’s Talk Poems 116
9. Audio File Audiophile: Listening for Ambient Poetry 129
POETRY & PROSE: INTIMATE OPPOSITION
10. Translation and Not-U nderstanding 141
11. Paul Auster’s Solitude in the Room of the Book 148
12. Lyn Hejinian Becomes a Person on Paper 176
Epilogue: Teaching Ameri can Poetry 185
Notes 193
Bibliography 213
Index 225

Figures
1. Cover of Evergreen Review, no. 4 (1958) 76
2. Indianapolis, 1956, by Robert Frank 77
3. Angelus Novus, 1920, by Paul Klee 95
4. The Angel of History, 1989, by Anselm Kiefer 96
5. Book with Wings, 1994, by Anselm Kiefer 97
6. Laurie Anderson, 1987, by Robert Mapplethorpe 97
7. Creeley’s Creeleys, 2007, by Buzz Spector 114