Democracy in Contemporary U.S. Women's Poetry (American Literature Readings in the Twenty-First Century)

This Book Supplements Existing Narratives Of Feminist Poetry By Examining How Contemporary Women Poets Have Interrogated What It Means To Be Public. It Draws On Recent Debates In Democratic Theory And Third-wave Feminism To Explore The Work Of Women Poets As Varied As Susan Howe, Rita Dove, Jorie Graham, Harryette Mullen, And Leslie Scalapino. It Examines How These Poets Offer A Critique Of The Normative Conventions Of U.s. Democracy, Particularly Its Assumptions About Public And Private, And Use Their Writing, And Its Cultural Structures, To Model Alternatives To Them.--jacket. Introduction: Becoming Publics: Democracy And Contemporary U.s. Women's Poetry -- 1. Paper Money And Tender Acts: Feminism And Democracy -- 2. The Poetics Of Privacy: Writing The Lyric Self -- 3. Against The Outside: Language Poetry As A Counter-public -- 4. Go Grrrl: Democracy And Counterculture -- 5. Romantic Materialism And Emerging Poets. Nicky Marsh. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [189]-215) And Index. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 10 Introduction: Becoming Publics: Democracy and Contemporary U.S. Women's Poetry......Page 12 Gender Trouble: The Foundations of Third-Wave Critique......Page 24 Difference and Democracy: June Jordan and Susan Howe......Page 31 Erica Hunt: Notes for an Oppositional Poetics......Page 47 Introduction......Page 50 The Privatization of the Academy......Page 52 Lady Freedom among Us?: Rita Dove......Page 58 Witnessing Responsibility: Carolyn Forché......Page 65 Reclaiming Silence: Jorie Graham......Page 74 Introduction......Page 84 Writing for the Reader: A Dialectic of Engagement......Page 87 An Impossible Task: Lyn Hejinian's Autobiography......Page 93 Total Art: Being Public in the Work of Leslie Scalapino......Page 102 Introduction......Page 112 The Aesthetics of the Obscene......Page 113 Do It Yourself (DIY) Poetry and Visual Writing......Page 116 The Case of Kathy Acker......Page 121 Meat the Poet: Women, Work, and Class......Page 125 Poetry and Riot Grrrl......Page 135 Introduction......Page 142 A Romantic Materialism......Page 143 The Responses of Juliana Spahr......Page 147 Harryette Mullen and an Emancipatory Literacy......Page 153 Lisa Jarnot: Literacy and Survival......Page 158 Notes......Page 166 Bibliography......Page 200 B......Page 228 F......Page 229 G......Page 230 J......Page 231 M......Page 232 P......Page 233 S......Page 234 Z......Page 235 This book reads the work of contemporary women poets against recent debates in A"third waveA" feminism and democratic theory in exploring the range of ways in which women poets have interrogated the complexities of being A"publicA" in contemporary U.S culture.