The Obligation Toward the Difficult Whole: Postmodernist Long Poems

by Brian McHale

University of Alabama Press, 2003
Cloth: 978-0-8173-1305-0 | Paper: 978-0-8173-5037-6
Library of Congress Classification PS310.P63M34 2004
Dewey Decimal Classification 810.9113

ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC

ABOUT THIS BOOK

A smart, eclectic analysis of nine long poems written by postmodernist poets

Addressing subjects as wide-ranging as angelology, the court masque, pop art, caricature, the cult of the ruin, hip-hop, Spense’'s Irish policy, and the aesthetics of silence, Brian McHale pulls varied threads together to identify a repertoire of postmodernist elements characteristic of the long poems he examines.

As critic Jed Rasula explains, “McHale is wonderfully resourceful in changing the subject from chapter to chapter to fit the poems discussed, and while his approach adheres to the conventions of textual exegesis, the chapters really shine as orchestrations of issues. For instance, James Merrill’s The Changing Light at Sandover works unexpectedly well in raising the subject of found poetry and procedural composition; Melvin Tolso’'s Harlem Gallery and Edward Dorn's Gunslinger are effectively paired to demonstrate the period flavor of pastiche; Geoffrey Hill’s Mercian Hymns and Armand Schwerner’s The Tablets explode the modernist fixation with depth; John Ashbery’s work is given a nuanced reading as proto-theory; Letter to an Imaginary Friend by Thomas McGrath provides a lucid backdrop to raise the question of political efficacy in approaching language poet Bruce Andrews; and Susan Howe's The Europe of Trusts is explored for its intertextual tapestry.”

McHale shows how elements from these long poems overlap, interfere, pull in different directions, jar against, and even contradict each other; and he demonstrates how they also echo, amplify, and reinforce each other. They do not slot smoothly together like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, but they do form (what else?) a difficult whole.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Brian McHale is Professor of English at Ohio State University, coeditor of the journal Poetics Today, and author of Postmodernist Fiction and Constructing Postmodernism.

REVIEWS

“An extraordinary blend of amazingly detailed scholarship and sustained enthusiasm for a notoriously difficult genre by a well-read scholar who is able to present his observations in ways that are fresh and exciting.”
—Hank Lazer, series editor and author of Days

“Brian McHale’s The Obligation toward the Difficult Whole: Postmodernist Long Poems seeks to distinguish modernist and postmodern poetry without resorting to simplistic chronologies (before and after World War II, before and after 1968, before and after Andy Warhol’s Brillo Box [1964]). McHale gains new purchase on this old subject. . . . The rewards are many . . . adventurous. Throughout, McHale experiments with unexpected juxtapositions, novel textual constellations, cross-media comparisons, and a range of other inventive means of illuminating contemporary poetry. Regardless of whether one agrees with every point in his argument, a reader is sure to take away a renewed sense of the diversity, ambition, and complexity of English language verse since 1960.”
—Contemporary Literature

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
Preface      000
Chapter 1. Introduction: The Obligation toward the Difficult Whole 000
     I. The Novelistic Model000
     II. The Architectural Model 000
Chapter 2. Angels in America: James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover
000
     I. Vision and Revision, or, the Changing Light000
     II. Making and Unmaking, or, Sandover   000
     III. Masque 000
     IV. Prosthesis   000
     V. Death    000
Chapter 3. Pop (Up) Figures: Melvin Tolson's Harlem Gallery and Edward Dorn's
Gunslinger 000
     I. Periodizing the Sixties  000
     II. Writing Circuses   000
     III. Pop-Up Figures    000
     IV. Funny Papers 000
Chapter 4. Archaeologies of Knowledge: Geoffrey Hill's Mercian Hymns and
Armand Schwerner's The Tablets   000
     I. The Primal Scene of Archaeology000
     II. Archaeo-Poetry     000
     III. Middens     000
     IV. Tablets 000
     V. Buried Self, Self in Ruins000
     VI. Archaeology in Ruins    000
Chapter 5. How (Not) to Read a Postmodernist Long Poem: John Ashbery's "The
Skaters"   000
     I. Which World?  000
     II. Which Self?  000
     III. Ars Poetica 000
     IV. How (Not) to Interpret "The Skaters"000
Chapter 6. Will the Revolution Be Televised? Thomas McGrath's Letter to an
Imaginary Friend and Bruce Andrews's "Confidence Trick" 000
     I. The "China" Syndrome000
     II. The Revolution of the Letter  000
     III. The Poetics of the Mix 000
     IV. Hiphoprisy, or, Will the Revolution Be Televised?000
     V. Enough Rope   000
Chapter 7. The Silent Woman: Susan Howe's The Europe of Trusts000
     I. HOW(ever)     000
     II. Her William Shakespeare 000
     III. Her Edmund Spenser000
     IV. HER Book of Stella 000
     V. Howe's Silences     000
Coda: Elements of Postmodernist Poetry 000
Notes      000
References 000
Index      000
 

Library of Congress Subject Headings for this publication: American poetry 20th century History and criticism, Postmodernism (Literature) United States, Literary form History 20th century

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