The Longman Anthology Of Contemporary American Poetry

Edited by poets about poets, this is a chronologically organized anthology of the work of major poets born after 1920. Part of the Penguin Academics series, it provides an introduction to the study of contemporary American literature.

Reference guide to poetry anthologies with descriptions and evaluations of each anthology.

The cultural value of poetry is critically examined in this book, from anthologies and academia to film and the internet. Attention is also given to the role of political ideologies and local, national and ethnic identities in the formation of poetic values.With chapters by distinguished critics from both sides of the Atlantic, the book ranges widely over contemporary poetry in America and the British Isles and explores transatlantic connections. Informed by current theoretical debates around ideas of value, the chapters focus these through clear discussion of texts in various media, including the work of a wide variety of poets and movements. The book carries forward the debate on the value of contemporary poetry amongst critics, scholars and practitioners while offering rich material for students and teachers of contemporary poetry and culture.Contributors: Jonathan Allison, Vicki Bertram, Paul Breslin, Cairns Craig, Robert Crawford, Lilias Fraser, Alan Golding, Romana Huk, Marjorie Perloff, Andrew Michael Roberts.Features * Focuses on the relationship between poetry and cultural practices* Informed by current theoretical debates about value* Wide range of British and American poetry discussed by leading critics from both sides of the Atlantic

This book is a major source for scholars of the latest American poetry. These exciting essays comprise energy and documented discussions on experimentalism, multiculturalism, hyperspace, and gender. Anthologies and little magazines form the matrix for this exploration on conceptual issues surrounding language. The author widens the perspective in which a great deal of writing forced the limits of poetry in this kind of publications. At the same time, he analyzes new contexts and enters into conversation with other sources for inspiration found through other disciplines such as social theory, philosophy, linguistics, and art generated at both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Reflective, taut with alertness, and exploding the postmodern concept of word/object as a liberating experience, this book becomes a driving force to address poetry and challenging political issues with admirable depth.

In Poetic Culture, Christopher Beach questions the cultural significance of poetry, both as a canonical system and as a contemporary practice. By analyzing issues such as poetry's loss of audience, the "anthology wars" of the 1950s and early 1960s, the academic and institutional orientation of current poetry, the poetry slam scene, and the efforts to use television as a medium for presenting poetry to a wider audience, Beach presents a sociocultural framework that is fundamental to an understanding of the poetic medium. While calling for new critical methods that allow us to examine poetry beyond the limits of the accepted contemporary canon, and beyond the terms in which canonical poetry is generally discussed and evaluated, Beach also makes a compelling case for poetry and its continued vitality both as an aesthetic form and as a site for the creation of community and value.