The Language Book (Poetics of the New) (Paperback)

~ Bruce Andrews (Editor), Professor Charles Bernstein (Editor)
Key Phrases: single hurt color, blind glass, sound poetry, The Telling, Charles Bernstein, Ron Silliman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In 1978, a new magazine appeared on the American poetry scene. The magazine, strangely titled L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, became during its four years of publication a main forum for a group of young writers keen to engage in theoretical speculation and debate about their medium. L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E disappeared in 1981, but its name has lingered on, mainly as a means of designating a highly varied body of work which was shaped by the emerging protocols of the magazine.”—Peter Middleton, Contemporary Poetry Meets Modern Theory

“The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book was instrumental, not simply to laying a foundation for an urgently needed new sense of writing, but to vividly ar­ticulating the multidisciplinary and polytextual sweep of this writing’s core investigations.”

—Loss Pequeño Glazier, Dictionary of Literary Biography

“L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E is a perpetual intellectual delight, especially wel­come for its cogent reviews of small press publications. The editors, who are just as much at ease with Walter Benjamin and Gertrude Stein as . . . Tom Raworth, offer a wide variety of critical materials. . . . The perceptive re­views and comments make this a small gem.”—Bill Katz, Library Journal

 

“For over twenty years, in magazines such as… L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E… this movement has given us a body of writing that may be the most signifi­cant since the modernists.”—Hank Lazer, The Nation

 

“An essential source. With its blend of voices and crisscrossing dialogues, the book has an almost novelistic density.”—Voice Literary Supplement

 

“It is one of the first journals to extend directly from a concern for language as a ground base for poetry and one of the few magazines to provide an open forum for discussions of poetics by the writers themselves.”—Michael Davidson, Archive for New Poetry Newsletter

 

“Apropos favorite books of the past year’s reading ... I read more absorbedly books like L=A =N=G=U=A=G=E… than I did much else.”—Robert Creeley, The Poetry Project Newsletter

 

“Attempting to make it new.”—Donald Hall, Times Literary Supplement

Product Description

This source book provides an understanding of contemporary writing which articulates the multidisciplinary and polytextual nature of this writing's core investigations.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press (February 27, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0809311062
• ISBN-13: 978-0809311064
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #557,929 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A Whitman Sampler, of sorts, December 23, 2006

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

A distillation of a journal published a couple decades ago, this enjoyable collection offers brief essays from a number of writers. Each piece presents a distinct, if sometimes quirky, entry way into the world of L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E poetry. Prepare to have your mind warped. Prepare to laugh, and prepare to confront some dense, but rewarding prose.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating, March 21, 2002

By A Customer

Bernstein is one of the great poets in the world today and this is a brilliant insight into the poetics of the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E "school". If you have any serious interest in poetry and poetics, you should read this book.

7 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The English Language meets Cuisine Arte., May 24, 2002

By A Customer

If you like to see the English language --- the Queen's English, that is to say --- subjected to the most vicious of butcherings and prententious, pedantic doodeling, than I think this books will be right up your alley. I, however, prefer such masters of Her Majesty's language as Judith Butler, Gayatri Spivak, Hobi Baba, ann Michael Hardt. Not.