Reading the Difficulties: Dialogues with Contemporary American Innovative Poetry (Modern and Contemporary Poetics)

The bold essays that make up __Reading the Difficulties__ offer case studies in and strategies for reading innovative poetry. Definitions of what constitutes innovative poetry are innumerable and are offered from every quarter. Some critics and poets argue that innovative poetry concerns free association (John Ashbery), others that experimental poetry is a “re-staging” of language (Bruce Andrews) or a syntactic and cognitive break with the past (Ron Silliman and Lyn Hejinian). The tenets of new poetry abound. But what of the new reading that such poetry demands? Essays in __Reading the Difficulties__ ask what kinds of stances allow readers to interact with verse that deliberately removes many of the comfortable cues to comprehension—poetry that is frequently nonnarrative, nonrepresentational, and indeterminate in subject, theme, or message. Some essays in Thomas Fink and Judith Halden-Sullivan’s collection address issues of reader reception and the way specific stances toward reading support or complement the aesthetic of each poet. Others suggest how we can be open readers, how innovative poetic texts change the very nature of reader and reading, and how critical language can capture this metamorphosis. Some contributors consider how the reader changes innovative poetry, what language reveals about this interaction, which new reading strategies unfold for the audiences of innovative verse, and what questions readers should ask of innovative verse and of events and experiences that we might bring to reading it. CONTRIBUTORS Charles Bernstein / Carrie Conners / Thomas Fink / Kristen Gallagher / Judith Halden-Sullivan / Paolo Javier / Burt Kimmelman / Hank Lazer / Jessica Lewis Luck / Stephen Paul Miller / Sheila E. Murphy / Elizabeth Robinson / Christopher Schmidt / Eileen R. Tabios Reading The Difficulties / Thomas Fink And Judith Halden-sullivan -- Thank You For Saying Thank You / Charles Bernstein -- Reading And Reading / Elizabeth Robinson -- Of Course Poetry Is Difficult -- Poetry Is Not Difficult / Hank Lazer -- Articulating A Radical And A Secular Jewish Poetics: Walter Benjamin, Charles Bernstein, And The Weak Messiah As Girly Man / Stephen Paul Miller -- Reading The Posthuman Subject In The Alphabet / Burt Kimmelman -- Cooking A Book With Low-level Durational Energy; Or, How To Read Tan Lin's Seven Controlled Vocabularies / Kristen Gallagher -- Engaging With (the Content Of) John Bloomberg-rissman's 2nd Notice Of Modifications To Text Of Proposed Regulations / Eileen R. Tabios -- Bursting At The Seams: Exploding The Confines Of Reification With Creative Constraints In Sleeping With The Dictionary / Carrie Conners -- The Game Of Self-forgetting: Reading Innovative Poetry Reading Gadamer / Judith Halden-sullivan -- The Utopian Textures And Civic Commons Of Lisa Robertson's Soft Architecture / Christopher Schmidt -- Problems Of Context And The Will To Parsimony: Reading Difficult Recent U.s. Poetry / Thomas Fink -- Some Notes On Bpnichol, (captain) Poetry, And Comics / Paolo Javier -- Crossing The Corpus Callosum: The Musical Phenomenology Of Lisa Jarnot / Jessica Lewis Luck -- Extrapolatia / Sheila E. Murphy. Edited By Thomas Fink And Judith Halden-sullivan. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Content: Acknowledgments Reading the Difficulties -- Thomas Fink and Judith Halden-Sullivan Thank You for Saying Thank You -- Charles Bernstein Reading and Reading -- Elizabeth Robinson Of Course Poetry Is Difficult / Poetry Is Not Difficult -- Hank Lazer Articulating a Radical and a Secular Jewish Poetics: Walter Benjamin, Charles Bernstein, and the Weak Messiah as Girly Man -- Stephen Paul Miller Reading the Posthuman Subject in The Alphabet -- Burt Kimmelman Cooking a Book with Low-Level Durational Energy or, How to Read Tan Lin's Seven Controlled Vocabularies -- Kristen Gallagher. Engaging with (the Content of) John Bloomberg-Rissman's 2nd NOTICE OF MODIFICATIONS TO TEXT OF PROPOSED REGULATIONS -- Eileen R. TabiosBursting at the Seams: Exploding the Confines of Reification with Creative Constraints in Sleeping with the Dictionary -- Carrie Conners The Game of Self-Forgetting: Reading Innovative Poetry Reading Gadamer -- Judith Halden-Sullivan The Utopian Textures and Civic Commons of Lisa Robertson's Soft Architecture -- Christopher Schmidt Problems of Context and the Will to Parsimony: Reading "Difficult" Recent U.S. Poetry -- Thomas Fink. Some Notes on bpNichol, (Captain) Poetry, and Comics -- Paolo JavierCrossing the Corpus Callosum: The Musical Phenomenology of Lisa Jarnot -- Jessica Lewis Luck Extrapolatia -- Sheila E. Murphy Works Cited Contributors Index.