Twentieth-Century and Contemporary Poetry

CDA:a Comparison of Contemporary Iranian and American Poetry

by Parvaneh Khosravizadeh

Co-authored with Sara Mahabadi, Published in the proceedings of International Conference on Languages, Literature and Linguistics, IPEDR vol.26 (2011)

This paper contains a comparison of a famous female poet from Iran and a well-known poet
from the USA. In this... more This paper contains a comparison of a famous female poet from Iran and a well-known poet
from the USA. In this paper issues such as the contexts they produced their work, the type of poems they wrote, and the type of audience they offered their work to, are examined. There is also an analysis of the acceptance as well as the critics of their poems and how they were viewed in the eyes of the readers who
responded to their poems. Some of the views of the contemporary scholars are given in order to give a clear view of the similarities and the differences that exist between the styles of these two poets.

An Approach for the Study of Poetic Imagination

by Arezou Zalipour

Abstract of my PhD thesis that was completed in 2008. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested to know more about my PhD thesis. I am trying to publish it as a book. Your kind suggestions are most welcomed.

An Approach for the Study of Poetic Imagination

Arezou Zalipour, PhD
more An Approach for the Study of Poetic Imagination

Arezou Zalipour, PhD
arezouzalipour@gmail.com


This study examines notions of poetic imagination towards exploring its contemporary representations. It takes its initial point of departure with a historical and conceptual survey that traces the concepts and theories of both imagination and poetic imagination. The literature survey demonstrates that poetic imagination has not been featured in the theories of modern and contemporary poetry, barring the Romantics who celebrated the creative nature of imagination. Therefore, the existing concepts, ideas and theories of poetic imagination are largely unstructured and incoherent concepts inherited by contemporary poets. However, there are some researches on the concept of imagination in poetry in modern and contemporary philosophy and psychology. In the twentieth century, the use of poetic image in philosophical studies as well as the relations between imagination and reality have provided some insights into modern conceptions of poetic imagination. This thesis examines, discusses and collates the principles and concepts relevant to imagination to discover whether these notions can explain and define the nature of poetic imagination in contemporary poetry. Fundamentally, the thesis develops an approach for the exploration of contemporary notions of poetic imagination. The approach is drawn from the existing concepts and theories of imagination and poetic imagination. The approach is constructed featuring the elements of types of images, features of poetic imagination and modes of imagination.

These three categories shape the components of the theoretical framework and also form the three levels of the analytical procedure of the approach. In level one, we look at types of images in a poem which leads us to draw conclusions about features of poetic imagination in level two. In level three, the findings in levels one and two will then help us to determine the apparent and dominant mode of imagination in the poem/text. What should emerge by the end of the analysis is a special opportunity to look at how (creative) imagination is manifested in a poem/text. The approach was applied to a corpus of contemporary poetry in order to show the application of the approach and the way analysis is carried put. The assessment of the approach on a corpus of contemporary poetry was also in an attempt to elucidate the dimensions of relationships between the imagined, the imaged, and the real.

The research identifies that imagination in contemporary poetry moves more towards imaging rather than poetic imagination. In other words, imagination shows greater affinity to imaging in contemporary poetry. The significant contribution of the thesis is that it offers a continuum called Imaginiuum with one end as imaging, and poetic imagination as the other. Imaginiuum is a paradigm that describes contemporary notions of imagination in poetry.

Lyric and its Discontents

by Walt Hunter

forthcoming in Minnesota Review

The lyric poem has often been understood as incompatible with other discourses, set apart by its compression, privacy,... more The lyric poem has often been understood as incompatible with other discourses, set apart by its compression, privacy, and identification with the individual self. Recently, the New Lyric Studies has rejected both the essentialism and the exceptionalism of the lyric as a genre or mode, seeking instead to expose the term lyric as an ideological reading practice that separates the text from its historical context. This essay examines some of the ways in which four new books on poetry by Siobhan Phillips, Joel Nickels, Christopher Nealon, and Oren Izenberg contribute to lyric theory by emphasizing what the poem holds in common with other discourses. I analyze the intersection between the lyric and four terms borrowed from sociology, moral philosophy, political theory, and economics: the everyday, the person, the multitude, and capital. Stressing the lyric’s compatibility rather than its distinction, these critics reveal the universalism and collectivity out of which the lyric voice is constructed. I argue that the New Lyric Studies, widely construed to include these critics, brings poetry in line with the social poetics, world systems, and democratic inclusivity that figure prominently in current literary discourse, as well as with European theories of poetic subjectivity and community.

African Masks and the Arts of Passing in Gertrude Stein's "Melanctha" and Nella Larsen's" Passing"

by Corinne Blackmer

From Poetic Imagination to Imaging: Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination in Poetry

by Arezou Zalipour

Arezou Zalipour. 2011. “From Imaging to Poetic Imagination: Contemporary Notions of Poetic Imagination”. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. Vol. 3, No. 4, pp. 481-494.

When we consider what constitutes the essence of poetry, we are confronted with a variety of questions none of which... more When we consider what constitutes the essence of poetry, we are confronted with a variety of questions none of which may be answered with final satisfaction. One feature that seems to emerge repeatedly through time is the notion of imagination and the term ‘poetic imagination’ to depict the emotional, imaginative, intellectual and the expressive language used to reflect the writer’s consciousness. This paper primarily discusses the core finding of my research in the concepts, theories and ideas of poetic imagination. The research characterizes a series of modes of imagination in contemporary poetry. These modes have been drawn from the existing notions and concepts of poetic imagination. The research identifies that imagination in contemporary poetry moves more towards imaging rather than poetic imagination. In other words, imagination shows greater affinity to imaging in contemporary poetry. This paper aims to present the significant contribution of the overall research which is the conceptualization of a paradigm of various modes of imagination in contemporary poetry, with imaging and poetic imagination as its two ends. Other modes of creative imagination reside between imaging and poetic imagination.

[Keywords: contemporary notions of poetic imagination, modes of imagination, imaging, creative imagination, poetry, theories of imagination]

"To Make a Show of Concealing": the Revision of Satire in Earle Birney's "Bushed" (SCL 35.2)

by Duncan McFarlane

McFarlane, Duncan. "'To Make a Show of Concealing': the Revision of Satire in Earle Birney's 'Bushed'." Studies in Canadian Literature 35.2 (2010): 185-205.

"An Art That Won't Behave": Film and the Seven Arts, 1907-1921

by Michael Devine

American Literature 84.1 (March 2012): 89-117

In the first two decades of the twentieth century, American artists connected to the journal the Seven Arts sought to... more In the first two decades of the twentieth century, American artists connected to the journal the Seven Arts sought to transform the cinema into an indigenous art free from European influence. Precisely because the cinema was “an art that won't behave,” as the journal's first essay on film put it, it depended on the arts as tutor texts in the effort to restrain sensory disorder and reinvigorate communal life. Wholly absent from critical treatments that see film as a model for the most kinetic modernist practices, the journal provides entry to a richly interdisciplinary history of American cinema: in the critical writings and poetry of the journal's contributors, including James Oppenheim, Waldo Frank, Vachel Lindsay, Stephen Vincent Benét, and Babette Deutsch, and in the works of artists close to the journal—John Sloan's painting Movies, Five Cents (1907) and Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler's abstract film Manhatta (1921). Imagined as a shelter from the most dispiriting forces of urban-industrial modernity, the cinema was at once embraced, challenged, and idealized by these artists who practiced what Wanda Corn has called a “transcendent modernism.”

Matrimony Unpropitious

by Mohamed Eno

Another excerpt from the book Corpses on the Menu

The African masses should beware of a total subscription to the 'Shared Values' project. Previous as well as current... more The African masses should beware of a total subscription to the 'Shared Values' project. Previous as well as current hardships created by the West should give us enough reading of where we are heading and who to trust along the journey.

"The Philosophy and Non-Philosophy of Potato Salad"

by f. scott scribner

This is a page proof preview for an article which will appear in the following edited collection: The Philosophy of the Beats, Ed., Sharin Elkoly, The University of Kentucky Press, 2012 (forthcoming).

Through a meditation on the discursive limits of the discipline of philosophy itself, as a microcosm of the very motor... more Through a meditation on the discursive limits of the discipline of philosophy itself, as a microcosm of the very motor of Western culture, this essay looks at the intimate dynamic between tradition and defiance, philosophy and non-philosophy, to assess the extent to which the experiential and performative acts of the beat generation can be said to be recoupable by the tradition and thus can be said to be a philosophy at all.

W. H. Auden: 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats.' L'uomo, la natura, la memoria della scienza e dell'arte

by Nicola D'Ugo

Pubblicato/Published in: AA.VV., 'Quaderno di poesia Straniera', Semar, Roma 1996, pp. 24-31.

Analisi della poesia in tre tempi di W. H. Auden. Si evidenzia il rapporto che, per Auden, lega un'opera letteraria al... more Analisi della poesia in tre tempi di W. H. Auden. Si evidenzia il rapporto che, per Auden, lega un'opera letteraria al suo autore quale uomo biologico, attivista e modello d'espressività artistica.

[Analysis of W. H. Auden's 'In Memory of W. B. Yeats' in three moments. The essay focuses on the link between a literary work and its author as a biological human being, an activist and a model of artistic commitment.]

Eliot's the Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

by Sara Trevisan

The concept of classical elements in the poetry of Dylan Thomas

by Vladimir Milenković

Poetry is the enemy of aggressive globalization and information pollution.

Download Unicode (Greek Alphabet) font to read Greek letters

The theme of this essay is the classical concept of the elements and how this concept is realized in the poetry of... more The theme of this essay is the classical concept of the elements and how this concept is realized in the poetry of Dylan Thomas. The historiographical development of the concept and its etymology will be presented. My treatment of interpretation and textual polysemy in this paper will be subjective, but reflections on possible correlations with existing and established philosophical systems are going to be outlined. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the unique realization of the concept in Thomas’ poetry, but likewise to consider more general patterns which are present in the text (cultural memes) and to clarify the meaning of the concept in the broader context of personal reflection and identity. All quoted poems are taken from the book 'The collected poems of Dylan Thomas (1957)', which the poet himself had edited in such a way as to contain only his best and most important works.

Key words: element, meaning, life, death, origin

‘Kathleen Raine’

by Katherine Firth

Published in in British Writers Supplement, vol. XVI, ed. Jay Parini, (New York, London: Scribner, 2011)

A comprehensive study of Raine's life and work, with particular focus on her poems and autobiographical writing. ... more A comprehensive study of Raine's life and work, with particular focus on her poems and autobiographical writing.  Her interests in Yeats' and Blake's mysticism, the natural world and women's writing, and the impact on her poems of her relationship with men, including Gavin Maxwell, is measured across the poems published between 1943 and 2003 . 

Dmitrij Prigov’s Iterative Poetics

by Jacob Edmond

Russian Literature (slated for publication late 2011). Forthcoming in a special issue on Prigov’s work.

"Let’s do a Gertrude Stein on it": Caroline Bergvall and Iterative Poetics

by Jacob Edmond

Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry 3.2 (2011): 37–50.

Caroline Bergvall’s practice addresses what I call the iterative turn in contemporary culture. This turn encompasses... more Caroline Bergvall’s practice addresses what I call the iterative turn in contemporary culture. This turn encompasses poets’ use of pre-existing material and theorists’ treatment of gender, culture, and text as constituted by repeated acts. Bergvall extends Stein’s iterative writing into other forms of iteration, including performance; translation; presentations in multiple media or versions; archival, serial and conceptual forms; and the rewriting of historical texts. By placing bodily gesture at the intersection of multiple linguistic and technological mediations, Bergvall offers an alternative to existing iterative theories––one that recognizes not just the infinite possibilities of iteration but also each singularly embodied instantiation.

KEYWORDS
• multimedia • British, French, Norwegian poetry • performance • poetics •
repetition • translation • embodiment • contemporary art

A sample section from the article is available for download here.

Exhorto al derecho de pernada

by Joaquin Badajoz

Reseña de Reina María Rodríguez. La Foto del Invernadero. Premio Casa de las Américas 1999 (Poesía). La Habana, 1998, 90 pp.
Publicado en Encuentro 16/17, primavera/otoño del 2000, Madrid. págs. 227-229.

Sylvia's Vampires, Ted's Dreamers (U. of Cyprus, 2001)

by Dianne Hunter

a longer version of this appears as "Poetics of Melancholy" in PARTIAL ANSWERS 1:1 (2003)

Ted Hughes's BIRTHDAY LETTERS participates in a superstitious tradition of familial and textual haunting that can be... more Ted Hughes's BIRTHDAY LETTERS participates in a superstitious tradition of familial and textual haunting that can be illuminated by Abraham and Torok's psychoanalytic theory of encryption.

Key words: Birthday Letters, crypt, grief, Ligeia, psychic possession, shrine.

'David Harsent'

by Niall Munro

Forthcoming in 'British Writers Supplement', Volume XIX, edited by Jay Parini (Farmington Hills, MI: Gale, 2012).

An overview of Harsent's life and poetic career, from 'Tonight's Lover' (1968) to 'Night' (2011), by way of his libretti and other fiction.

”Leaving Town” and “Swedes”: Edward Thomas and Amen-Hotep

by David Gill

(with Caroline Gill) Notes and Queries, Sep 2003; 50: 325 - 327

A discussion of 'Swedes' by Edward Thomas against the background of Egyptian tomb-robbing. A discussion of 'Swedes' by Edward Thomas against the background of Egyptian tomb-robbing.

Tambimuttu and the Poetry London Papers at the British Library: Reputation and Evidence

by Chris Beckett

Electronic British Library Journal, 2009

The papers of the most influential literary magazine of the 1940s, <i>Poetry London</i>  (1939-51),... more The papers of the most influential literary magazine of the 1940s, <i>Poetry London</i>  (1939-51), and the associated papers its Sri Lankan editor, M. J. T. Tambimuttu, were long considered lost until they came to light in 2005, when they were passed to the British Library. The papers of author Richard March (purchased by the British Library in 2003), who was the magazine's owner and editor in its later years, complement Tambimuttu's papers. Taken together, the two collections provide an opportunity to review the accomplishments of the magazine and its principal editor, Tambimuttu. As A. T. Tolley observed, in <i>The Poetry of the Forties</i>  (1985), Tambimuttu's 'decided achievements deserve to be disengaged from the legends that have come to surround him.' This paper adopts an evidential approach to Tolley's challenge. It considers the exotic presentation of Tambimuttu in the memoirs of Julian Maclaren Ross, the context of Tambimuttu's dismissal as editor (in 1949), and endeavours to separate fact from fiction in respect of his literary reputation, particularly with regard to the posthumous publication of <i>The Collected Poems of Keith Douglas</i>  (Editions Poetry London, 1951).