Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology [Paperback]

Paul Hoover (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 17, 1994

Beginning in 1950 with Charles Olsen, Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology is the first anthology since Donald Allen’s groundbreaking collection to fully represent the movements of American avant-garde poetry.

Postmodern American Poetry provides a deep and wide selection-411 poems by 103 poets-of the major poets and movements of the late twentieth century. Included are the leading Beat and New York School poets, the Projectivists, and "Deep Image" poets. Included, too, is the rich array of poetry written since 1975-language and performance poetry, the work of African American, Hispanic, Asian American, gay and lesbian, and women experimentalists.

In addition, a final section of poetics-with writings by Frank O’Hara, Denise Levertov, Jerome Rothenberg, Amiri Baraka, and Charles Bernstein, among others-provides valuable contexts for reading the poems.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Concentration and magnification make the best anthologies work, and this may be one of them. Concentration: the focus on a body of writing with a heritage, an era, or a style in common that tests shared visions and constraints. Magnification: an expanse that seems to widen and deepen as we are allowed to take a look at it, and then another look. For anyone carping at the idea of the postmodern or the avant-garde as wanly intellectual, fiercely separatist, beside the point, or even nonexistent, Hoover's large-scale collection of recent experimental American poetry (and a concluding selection of essays about it) should persuade that it's not. He brings together more than 100 writers from the 1950s and since--Olson, Duncan, O'Hara, Ginsberg, Corso, Dorn, Major, Ashbery, Guest--whose adventures with the language renew it for far more than a readymade membership. The fact that some of the poets are sine qua nons and others aren't simply leaves the whole tribe more interesting. There's almost no point in listing names, except to indicate breadth; the same could be said for the "schools" represented. For literary positions have a way easing from their own strictures and outgrowing acolytic expectation when the words themselves are richly transformed and reformed--as they are here. Hoover is the editor of New American Writing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Long regarded as the major purveyor of conservative, canonical literary anthologies for classroom use, the publisher here loosens up with a hefty gathering of 103 avant-gardists from the Beat, New York, Black Mountain, language, performance, and other experimental schools flourishing off-campus since World War II. It's an exceptionally rich vein but one well mined of late in American Poetry Since 1950 ( LJ 5/1/93), Out of this World ( LJ 10/1/91 ), and other works. Editor Hoover broadly defines postmodernism as "an ongoing process of resistance to mainstream ideology" whose poetry "opposes . . . centrist values," yet, ironically, what separates this anthology from the others is its recasting of a half century's lively artistic spontaneity into a set of "oppositional strategies" aimed at supporting the jargon-plated theories of today's mainstream academic discourse. Half the 400-plus poems included were published only since 1980, and--bulk notwithstanding--there are surprising omissions (Oppen, Bronk, Dahlen, Oppenheimer). Thus, while this is a welcome survey of exciting territory, the Norton imprimatur should not imply that it is definitive.
- Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, N.Y.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 744 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; First Edition edition (May 17, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393310906
• ISBN-13: 978-0393310900
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #50,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #5 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Movements & Periods > Postmodernism

More About the Author

Paul Hoover was born in Harrisonburg, Virginia, in 1946, and currently lives in San Francisco, where he teaches at San Francisco State University and edits the well-known literary magazine New American Writing. His recent poetry volumes include The Novel: A Poem (New Directions, 1991), Viridian (Univerity of Georgia Press, 1997), Totem and Shadow: New and Selected Poems (Talisman House, 1999), Rehearsal in Black (Salt Publications, 2001), Winter Mirror (Flood Editions, 2002), Poems in Spanish (Omnidawn Publishing, 2005), Edge and Fold (Apogee Press, 2006), and Sonnet 56 (Les Figues Press, 2009), which consists of 56 formal variations on Shakespeare's sonnet 56. Editor of a leading anthology, Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology, 1994, he is also the author of a book of literary essays, Fables of Representation (University of Michigan Press, 2004). With Maxine Chernoff, he edited and translated Selected Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin (Omnidawn, 2008), which won the 2009 PEN USA Translation Award. With Nguyen Do, he edited and translated Beyond the Court Gate: Selected Poems of Nguyen Trai. He currently resides in Mill Valley, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one of the must-have anthologies, June 21, 2001

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[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (Paperback)

For anyone interested in postmodern poetry or for those who want to learn what postmodern poetry is, this is the anthology to have. It's loaded with some of the best poets: the gifted Robert Duncan, Ferlinghettis (one of the best of the beat poets), Bukowski (my first intro to him, and not a dissapointment), Levertov, Kenneth Koch (not his best poems, but still a good selection), the wonderful poetry of Frank O'Hara, Ginsberg, Robert Creely (and excellent selection), a selection from Ashbery so huge that i almost forgot i wasn't reading one of his books, the awesome Gary Snyder, Rothernberg's "Cokboy", Dave Trinidad, Paul Hoover, Wanda Coleman, Charles Olson, Kerouac, Philip Whalen, Corso, Amiri Baraka, Diane di Prima, Anne Waldman, and many others, including a very strong Chicago appearance towards the end.

The anthology starts with an essay by Hoover, which helps to clear up many questions about what postmodern poetry is and what many of the schools are. He concludes the anthology with a selection of essays on poetry.

5.0 out of 5 stars Critique of Postmodern American Poetry, April 30, 2011

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Joseph E. Tetro "Joe Tetro "Flying Eagle&... (2769 Winslow Way, Stockton CA 95210) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (Paperback)

First off, I was delighted to see a blurb on the back by my favorite poet critic Sven Birketts. In and off itself, his willingness to say "...the first antology to capture the scope of the underlying event" meant a lot to me. And the book surely does that (111 poems by 103 poets) along with a 14 page intro that explains and defines Postmodern in terms of it's incipience and in terms of its classification among other genres of poetry, stressing more than anything else its use of every day speech patterns and an overall veering away from from formalism of anykind. I see it as a one of a kind book, and felt I'd gotten exactly what I'd paid for, which was a used copy that arrived in excellent shape from one of Amazon's sellers.Forces in Modern and Postmodern Poetry (Studies in Modern Poetry)

5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Existentialist/postmodern intellectual's heaven, November 30, 2004

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C. Reno "thinking book lover" (Tulsa, Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Postmodern American Poetry: A Norton Anthology (Paperback)

Wow! If you're well read, this book is for you. It makes me wish I actually were alive when these people wrote. It is somewhat culturally biased, but I could easily excuse it as just being specific. There is a lot of name droppings in these artful poems, so if you're not used to it, beware! A lot of the poems are spaced out (physically) thoughtfully. This is a book for the thinkers and aspiring poets. Most of these poems were written in the 1950s, as the editors say. Gregory Corso is a highlight, as well as Ginsberg and some of the female writers. This book is long and well worth the price (or a visit to your local library). I am a struggling working class college student, but I'd easily pay $100 for this underrated gem. These are highly personal in nature, but people who like to imagine things would love this book. These inspiring personal reflections are artfully defiant, it will for sure paint a picture in your mind.

Happy reading!

Your all-American community college Vale-D.