21st-Century Modernism: The "New" Poetics (Blackwell Manifestos) [Paperback]

Marjorie Perloff (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0631219706 | ISBN-13: 978-0631219705 | Publication Date: February 25, 2002 | Edition: 1

This revisionist narrative of poetic change in the twentieth century challenges the accepted notions of what poetry is and can be in the new century and makes the case for the seminal place of poetry in contemporary culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Perloff's newest work offers refreshingly frank, controversial, and even inspiring ideas ... Perloff's readings refuse to reaffirm orthodoxies, presenting innovative perspectives on poets, early modernism and its relation to the current scene. Far from being a reactionary call to return to the past, Perloff's work envisions a bold continuation of modernism's earlier revolutionary impulses. 21st-Century Modernism is vital and necessary reading for anyone interested in the history of modern poetry and where it is going." PN Review

"The book commands respect, [...], not only for its energy and the precision of its readings, but for its refusal to surrender powers of arbitration from the artist to the teacher or theorist." Times Literary Supplement

"The heart of [Perloff's] book is her enthusiasm - a well-researched and carefully argued enthusiasm" The Virginia Quarterly Review

Book Description

This revisionist narrative of poetic change in the twentieth century challenges accepted notions of what poetry is & can be in the new century & makes the case for the seminal place of poetry in contemporary culture.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (February 25, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631219706
• ISBN-13: 978-0631219705
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #473,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rare close readings, November 25, 2002

By 

L. "les193" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 21st-Century Modernism: The "New" Poetics (Blackwell Manifestos) (Paperback)

Perloff is one of the great boosters of the 'alternative modernists' -- the theme of this book -- and spends a good deal of time in the trenches, doing polemical readings of recent poets in the avant-garde. Lyn Heijnian versus, e.g., Seamus Heaney -- Perloff wants radical approaches, and she finds the best of those who'll never be reviewed in the New York Times because of their newness. Maybe fifty years from now, the Times will pretend that, of course, we all knew they were great from the start. Obscure to god-like, with no intervening step.

In contrast to some of the avant-garde LANGUAGE types, Perloff is fair and low BS when it comes to her criticism (constrast Charles Bernstein's insufferable Poetics.) Her close readings are in the style of someone like Helen Vendler (although Perloff and Vendler are near-contemporaries, so it's unlikely that one's derivative of the other.) There aren't many people who can write with such acuity -- the only thing worse today than most poetry is the criticism of it.

The chapter on Stein is brilliant, and it's moving to see Stein get the treatment that she would have wanted and that she deserves -- careful, intelligent and defiantly untrendy. She makes Tender Buttons -- something I had never appriciated -- come right off the page.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A New Modernism?, May 26, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: 21st-Century Modernism: The "New" Poetics (Blackwell Manifestos) (Paperback)

I find the basic thesis of this book--that early Modernism is still with us--wholly convincing, but
what's best here is the choice of four such different poets--Eliot, Stein, Duchamp, and Khlebnikov as
precursors of our own poetry. The chapter on Duchamp asks the question Duchamp himself asked,
Can one make works which are not works of art?" and shows what that means in terms of avant-
garde aesthetic. The last chapter is dismissive (but not excessively so) of some mainstream American
and then makes a strong case for the terrific innovations of four exemplary poets: Susan Howe, Charles
Bernstein, Steve McCaffery, and Lyn Hejinian. Even if you don't agree with Perloff's overall thesis,
you'll love the details and extremely lucid readings. best of all, it's ENJOYABLE.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging a tepid establishment poetry, August 22, 2007

By 

Paul A. Baker "communicator" (Madison, Wis., US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 21st-Century Modernism: The "New" Poetics (Blackwell Manifestos) (Paperback)

Perloff's study examines the question: Despite the predominance of a `tepid and unambitious' Establishment poetry, what if there were a powerful avant-garde to take up once again the experimentation of the early twentieth century? She explores this question across five chapters: Avant-Garde Eliot; Gertrude Stein's Differential Syntax; The Conceptual Poetics of Marcel Duchamp; Khlebnikov's Soundscapes: Letter, Number, and the Poetics of Zaum; and "Modernism" at the Millennium. As we move into the 21st century, she writes, the modern/postmodern divide has emerged as more apparent than real, and the modernist challenge remains open.