Procedural Form in Postmodern American Poetry

Procedural Form in Postmodern American Poetry

Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics promotes and pursues topics in the burgeoning field of 20th and 21st century poetics. Critical and scholarly work on poetry and poetics of interest to the series includes social location in its relationships to subjectivity, to the construction of authorship, to oeuvres, and to careers; poetic reception and dissemination (groups, movements, formations, institutions); the intersection of poetry and theory; questions about language, poetic authority, and the goals of writing; claims in poetics, impacts of social life, and the dynamics of the poetic career as these are staged and debated by poets and inside poems. Topics that are bibliographic, pedagogic, that concern the social field of poetry, and reflect on the history of poetry studies are valued as well. This series focuses both on individual poets and texts and on larger movements, poetic institutions, and questions about poetic authority, social identifications, and aesthetics. Language and the Renewal of Society in Walt Whitman, Laura (Riding) Jackson, and Charles Olson: The American Cratylus By Carla Billitteri Modernism and Poetic Inspiration: The Shadow Mouth By Jed Rasula The Social Life of Poetry: Appalachia, Race, and Radical Modernism By Chris Green Procedural Form in Postmodern American Poetry: Berrigan, Antin, Silliman, and Hejinian By David W. Huntsperger

Procedural Form in Postmodern American Poetry Berrigan, Antin, Silliman, and Hejinian David W. Huntsperger palgrave macmillan

PROCEDURAL FORM IN POSTMODERN AMERICAN POETRY Copyright David W. Huntsperger, 2010. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2010 978-0-230-62202-9 All rights reserved. Cover Image: Citation from Ron Silliman, Tjanting. Applecross, Western Australia: Salt Publishing, 2002. Ron Silliman. First published in 2010 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-38382-5 ISBN 978-0-230-10610-9 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230106109 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Huntsperger, David. Procedural form in postmodern American poetry : Berrigan, Antin, Silliman, Hejinian / David Huntsperger. p. cm. (Modern and contemporary poetry and poetics) 1. American poetry 20th century History and criticism. 2. Postmodernism (Literature) United States. 3. Experimental poetry, American History and criticism. 4. Literary form History 20th century. 5. Berrigan, Ted Criticism and interpretation. 6. Antin, David Criticism and interpretation. 7. Silliman, Ronald, 1946 Criticism and interpretation. 8. Hejinian, Lyn Criticism and interpretation. I. Title. PS310.P63H86 2010 811.509113 dc22 2009026808 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: March 2010 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Contents Acknowledgments Permissions vii ix Introduction: A Social Reading of Postmodern Poetic Form 1 1 Procedural Form: An Overview 21 2 Making Poems: The method of Ted Berrigan s Sonnets 41 3 The Tactics of the Text: Experimental Form in David Antin s Novel Poem 71 4 A new content : Procedural Form and Concrete Reality in Ron Silliman s Tjanting 97 5 Objectivist Form and Feminist Materialism in Lyn Hejinian s My Life 131 Afterword 165 Notes 169 Works Cited 183 Index 191

This page intentionally left blank

Acknowledgments This book began as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Washington. Brian Reed was an extraordinarily supportive dissertation director and mentor, and without his guidance I could not have written this book. Jessica Burstein and Jeanne Heuving provided valuable feedback on the book in its early stages, and I am grateful for all of their help and support. Marshall and Jane Brown have contributed to my professional development in a multitude of ways, and I would like to thank them for their intellectual generosity and their hospitality. Mark Patterson, Joe Butwin, Nicholas Halmi, and Doug Collins have been inspiring mentors. Alissa Karl, Matt Levay, Heather Stansbury, and Thomas Stuby all colleagues during the dissertation process enriched my thinking about poetry and pedagogy. Rachel Blau DuPlessis and the anonymous reader for Palgrave Macmillan both helped sharpen the focus of this book with their insightful comments, and I would like to thank them for taking the time to read my manuscript. Julia Cohen and Samantha Hasey have been a remarkably helpful editorial team. I would also like to thank David Antin for his encouragement and for his willingness to undertake a correspondence about his work. I am grateful to my colleagues at Lawrence Technological University for their support and friendship. I would particularly like to thank the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Communication for generously defraying one of the permission fees incurred by the publication of this book. My parents, Jim and Letha Huntsperger, have contributed to this book and to my education in ways too numerous to list. I would like to thank them for all of their patient support over the years. Finally, I would like to dedicate this book to my wife, colleague, and intellectual partner, Nicole Huntsperger. Her contribution to this project is inestimable. I look forward to many more decades of collaboration, both in work and in life.

This page intentionally left blank

Permissions An earlier version of chapter three first appeared in Textual Practice 22.4 (2008). I would like to thank Peter Nicholls and the anonymous reader for their valuable feedback on this chapter in its earlier form. code of flag behavior, excerpts from novel poem, and two prose extracts from Selected Poems: 1963 1973 are used by generous permission of David Antin. Asymmetry 1 and an introductory prose extract, both from Asymmetries 1 260 by Jackson Mac Low, are used by permission of Anne Tardos and the Estate of Jackson Mac Low.