Description
Book Synopsis“It is difficult / to get the news from poems / yet men die miserably every day / for lack / of what is found there”, as the poet William Carlos Williams memorably declared. Matthew Hofer examines, through a multilayered literary critique of interwar modernist poetry, what it might mean to get the news, and more, from a poet.
Trade Review“
Omnicompetent Modernists makes a powerful and nuanced argument about the importance of John Dewey and Walter Lippmann to understanding the political poetry of Mina Loy, Ezra Pound, and Langston Hughes. The book will become a touchstone for debates about modernism and the role of poetry in the public sphere.”— Joshua Kotin, author of
Utopias of One “Drawing on new archival research, Matthew Hofer leverages Dewey’s insights into aesthetics and society for a series of highly original, incisive close analyses of formal strategies chosen by three modernist poets determined to give their poems political impact. This is a valuable work of literary history with direct relevance to our own cultural moment.”— Peter Middleton, author of
Expanding Authorship: Transformation in American Poetry since 1950 “
Omnicompetent Modernists seeks to change how we speak about the relationship between poetry and poetics. Hofer’s choice to consider Langston Hughes, Mina Loy, and Ezra Pound in the light of Dewey’s democratic philosophy is an inspired one. An argument that encompasses such disparate poetry has the prospect of saying a lot—this book delivers.”— Stephen Fredman, author of
American Poetry as Transactional Art
