{"product_id":"monster-9781433134050","title":"Monster","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eMonster: Distortion, Abstraction, and Originality in Contemporary American Poetry\u003c\/em\u003e argues that memorable and resonant poetry often distorts form, image, concept, and notions of truth and metaphor. Discussing how changes in electronic communication and artificial notions of landscape have impacted form and content in poetry,\u003cem\u003e Monster\u003c\/em\u003e redefines the idea of what is memorable and original through a broad range of poets including John Ashbery, Anne Carson, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Forrest Gander, Peter Gizzi, Jorie Graham, Robert Hass, Brenda Hillman, Laura Kasischke, W. S. Merwin, Srikanth Reddy, Donald Revell, Mary Ruefle, Arthur Sze, and James Tate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“In these essays Mark Irwin moves among poems like an ecstatic bee in pollen season. No one more zealous at placing both particulars and compositions under the strong light of a concept, whether \u003ci\u003edistortion\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003etransition\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eabstraction\u003c\/i\u003e, or \u003ci\u003etime\u003c\/i\u003e.”—Calvin Bedient, Author, \u003ci\u003eHe Do the Police in Different Voices: The Waste Land and Its Protagonist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“This important work of literary and cultural criticism probes the essential issues of poetry today. For example, distortion in poetry may now be necessary to its truth-function, a broken language for a broken world. Are we so distracted by the buzz of electronic media that lyric silence, along with nature, has receded into the past? Is anything real or, as it often seems, a virtual creation? Quoting Alfred Jarry, ‘I call Monster all original and inexhaustible beauty,’ Irwin reminds us that monstrosity is inherent in the new. Every great work of art, from Picasso’s \u003ci\u003eGuernica\u003ci\u003e to W.C. Williams’ plainspoken objectivism, emerges as a monster. As the author writes in his wonderful essay, ‘The Emergency of Poetry’: ‘Poetry is born of crisis or will seek it, often beginning \u003ci\u003ein medias res\u003c\/i\u003e —the middle where the danger is.’ It is then a question if art can heal or does the cultural wound lie open. My response to reading this book was immediate. It made me want to write something.”—Paul Hoover, Editor, \u003ci\u003ePostmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eList of Illustrations – Acknowledgments – Distortion \u0026amp; Disjunction in Contemporary American Poetry – Poetry, Reality, \u0026amp; Place in a Placeless World of Global Communication – Toward a Wilderness of the Artificial – The Poem as Concept – Three Notions of Truth in Poetry – Raising Poetry to a Higher Power – Poetry \u0026amp; Memorability – Poetry \u0026amp; Originality: \"Have you been there before?\" – Origin, Presence, \u0026amp; Time in the Poetry of W. S. Merwin – Jorie Graham: Kite’s Body \u0026amp; Beyond – A Romp through \u003ci\u003eRuefleland\u003c\/i\u003e: Mary Ruefle’s \u003ci\u003eSelected Poems \u003c\/i\u003e\u0026amp; \u003ci\u003eMadness, Rack, and Honey: Collected Lectures\u003c\/i\u003e – Orpheus, Parzival, \u0026amp; Bartleby: Ways of Abstraction in Poetry – Bibliography – Author Index – About the Author.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Peter Lang Publishing Inc","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51039602508119,"sku":"9781433134050","price":76.73,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781433134050.jpg?v=1750944234","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/monster-9781433134050","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}