Reading Duncan Reading: Robert Duncan and the Poetics of Derivation (Contemp North American Poetry)

In Reading Duncan Reading , thirteen scholars and poets examine, first, what and how the American poet Robert Duncan read and, perforce, what and how he wrote . Harold Bloom wrote of the searing anxiety of influence writers experience as they grapple with the burden of being original, but for Duncan this was another matter altogether. Indeed, according to Stephen Collis, “No other poet has so openly expressed his admiration for and gratitude toward his predecessors.” Part one emphasizes Duncan’s acts of reading, tracing a variety of his derivations—including Sarah Ehlers’s demonstration of how Milton shaped Duncan’s early poetic aspirations, Siobhán Scarry’s unveiling of the many sources (including translation and correspondence) drawn into a single Duncan poem, and Clément Oudart’s exploration of Duncan’s use of “foreign words” to fashion “a language to which no one is native.” In part two, the volume turns to examinations of poets who can be seen to in some way derive from Duncan—and so in turn reveals another angle of Duncan’s derivative poetics. J. P. Craig traces Nathaniel MacKey’s use of Duncan’s “would-be shaman,” Catherine Martin sees Duncan’s influence in Susan Howe’s “development of a poetics where the twin concepts of trespass and ‘permission’ hold comparable sway,” and Ross Hair explores poet Ronald Johnson’s “reading to steal.” These and other essays collected here trace paths of poetic affiliation and affinity and hold them up as provocative possibilities in Duncan’s own inexhaustible work.

In Reading Duncan Reading, thirteen scholars and poets examine, first, what and how the American poet Robert Duncan read and, perforce, what and how he wrote. Harold Bloom wrote of the searing anxiety of influence writers experience as they grapple with the burden of being original, but for Duncan this was another matter altogether. Indeed, according to Stephen Collis, "No other poet has so openly expressed his admiration for and gratitude toward his predecessors." Part one emphasizes Duncan's acts of reading, tracing a variety of his derivations—including Sarah Ehlers's demonstration of how Milton shaped Duncan's early poetic aspirations, Siobhán Scarry's unveiling of the many sources (including translation and correspondence) drawn into a single Duncan poem, and Clément Oudart's exploration of Duncan's use of "foreign words" to fashion "a language to which no one is native."

In part two, the volume turns to examinations of poets who can be seen to in some way derive from Duncan—and so in turn reveals another angle of Duncan's derivative poetics. J. P. Craig traces Nathaniel MacKey's use of Duncan's "would-be shaman, " Catherine Martin sees Duncan's influence in Susan Howe's "development of a poetics where the twin concepts of trespass and 'permission' hold comparable sway, " and Ross Hair explores poet Ronald Johnson's "reading to steal." These and other essays collected here trace paths of poetic affiliation and affinity and hold them up as provocative possibilities in Duncan's own inexhaustible work.

In __Reading Duncan Reading__, thirteen scholars and poets examine, first, what and how the American poet Robert Duncan __read__ and, perforce, what and how he __wrote__. Harold Bloom wrote of the searing anxiety of influence writers experience as they grapple with the burden of being original, but for Duncan this was another matter altogether. Indeed, according to Stephen Collis, “No other poet has so openly expressed his admiration for and gratitude toward his predecessors.” Part one emphasizes Duncan’s acts of reading, tracing a variety of his derivations—including Sarah Ehlers’s demonstration of how Milton shaped Duncan’s early poetic aspirations, Siobhán Scarry’s unveiling of the many sources (including translation and correspondence) drawn into a single Duncan poem, and Clément Oudart’s exploration of Duncan’s use of “foreign words” to fashion “a language to which no one is native.” In part two, the volume turns to examinations of poets who can be seen to in some way derive __from__ Duncan—and so in turn reveals another angle of Duncan’s derivative poetics. J. P. Craig traces Nathaniel MacKey’s use of Duncan’s “would-be shaman,” Catherine Martin sees Duncan’s influence in Susan Howe’s “development of a poetics where the twin concepts of trespass and ‘permission’ hold comparable sway,” and Ross Hair explores poet Ronald Johnson’s “reading to steal.” These and other essays collected here trace paths of poetic affiliation and affinity and hold them up as provocative possibilities in Duncan’s own inexhaustible work. Content: Permissions Introduction: The Poetics of Derivation -- Stephen Collis Part One: Duncan Reading One: Robert Duncan's Miltonic Persuasion: The Emergence of a Radical Poetic -- Sarah E. Ehlers Two: Robert Duncan's Derivative Poetics: Community, the Metaphysicals, and the Nature of War -- George Fragopoulos Three: Textual Poetics and the Politics of Reading in Duncan's "Night Scenes" -- Siobhán Scarry Four: The Airs of Duncan and Zukofsky -- Jeffrey Twitchell-Waas Five: Is the Queendom Enough (without the Queen)? Poetic Abdication in Robert Duncan and Laura Riding -- Graham Lyons. Six: Reading A/Drift:Robert Duncan's Use of Foreign Words -- Clément OudartPart Two: Reading Duncan Seven: Derivation or Stealth? Quotation in the Poetry of Robert Duncan and Ronald Johnson -- Ross Hair Eight: Symposium of the Whole: Jerome Rothenberg and the Dream of "A Poetry of All Poetries" -- Stephen Fredman Nine: How the Dead Prey upon Us: Robert Duncan and Susan Howe -- Catherine Martin Ten: Divining the Derivers: Anarchism and the Practice of Derivative Poetics in Robert Duncan and John Cage -- Andy Weave Eleven: The Poets' War: Inflation, Complicity, and the Daimonic -- J.P. Craig. Twelve: Talking Cosmos: Robert Duncan and Ronald Johnson -- Peter O'LearyBibliography Contributors Index. In this book, thirteen scholars and poets examine, first, what and how the American poet Robert Duncan read and, perforce, what and how he wrote. Harold Bloom wrote of the searing anxiety of influence writers experience as they grapple with the burden of being original, but for Duncan this was another matter altogether. Indeed, according to Stephen Collis, "No other poet has so openly expressed his admiration for and gratitude toward his predecessors." The essays collected here trace paths of poetic affiliation and affinity and hold them up as provocative possibilities in Duncan’s own inexhaustible work