The point is to change it : poetry and criticism in the continuing present

266 Pages·2007·1.333 MB·English

by  Professor Jerome McGann

The Point Is To Change It
MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETICS
SERIES EDITORS
Charles Bernstein
Hank Lazer
SERIES ADVISORY BOARD
Maria Damon
Rachel Blau DuPlessis
Alan Golding
Susan Howe
Nathaniel Mackey
Jerome McGann
Harryette Mullen
Aldon Nielsen
Marjorie Perloff
Joan Retallack
Ron Silliman
Lorenzo Thomas
Jerry Ward
The Point Is To Change It
Poetry and Criticism in the Continuing
Present
Jerome McGann
THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA PRESS
Tuscaloosa
Copyright © 2007
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Typeface: Baskerville
∞
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McGann, Jerome J.
The point is to change it : poetry and criticism in the continuing present /
Jerome McGann.
p. cm. (Modern and Contemporary Poetics)
Includes bibliograhical references and index
ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-1551-1 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8173-1551-9 (alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-5408-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 0-8173-5408-5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. American poetry—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Experimental
poetry, American—History and criticism. 3. Modernism (Literature) 4. Poet-
ics. 5. Criticism. I. Title.
PS323.5.M395 2007
811′.509112—dc22
2006024306
For Charles and Johanna
We detest these depthless pretenses—these present-tense verbs,
expressed pell-mell. We prefer genteel speech, where sense
redeems senselessness.
—Christian Bök, Eunoia.
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
The Argument xi
Poetry and the Privilege of Historical Backwardness xiii
1. Philological Investigations 1
PART I. IT MUST BE ABSTRACT
2. Truth in the Body of Falsehood 21
3. The Alphabet, Spelt from Silliman’s Leaves 44
4. The Apparatus of Loss: Bruce Andrews Writing 65
PART II. IT MUST CHANGE
5. Art and Error, with Special Thanks to the Poetry of
Robert Duncan 83
6. Private Enigmas and Critical Functions, with Special
Thanks to the Poetry of Charles Bernstein 98
7. From Sight to Shenandoah 125
PART III. IT MUST GIVE PLEASURE
8. Marxism, Romanticism, Postmodernism: An American
Case History 139
9. Looney Tunes and Unheard Melodies: (cid:45)
An Oulipian Colonescapade, with a Critique of
“The Great-Ape Love Song Corpus” and Its Lexicon 166
PART IV. CONTINUING PRESENT
10. The Evidence of Things Not Seen: A Play 183
viii / Contents
11. IVANHOE: A Playful Portrait 199
12. Modernity and Complicity: A Conversation with Johanna
Drucker 205
Notes 221
Bibliography 231
Index 235
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank the editors of the journals who fi rst published some of
the materials that appear in this book. In the last two sections I have
lifted and reworked parts of the essay “Contemporary Poetry, Alter-
nate Routes,” Critical Inquiry 13 (Spring 1987): 624–47. The follow-
ing essays are reprinted here more or less exactly as they originally ap-
peared:
“Truth in the Body of Falsehood (Clark Coolidge’s Poetry),”
Parnassus 15 no. 1 (1989): 257–80.
“Marxism, Romanticism, and Postmodernism: An American Case
History,” South Atlantic Quarterly 88 (Summer 1989): 605–32.
“The Alphabet, Spelt from Silliman’s Leaves (A Conversation on
the American Longpoem),” South Atlantic Quarterly 89 (Fall 1990):
737–59.
“Charles Bernstein’s ‘The Simply’,” in Contemporary Poetry Meets
Modern Theory, ed. Antony Easthope and John O. Thompson
(Harvester-Wheatsheaf: London, 1991), 34–39.
“Art and Error: With Special Reference to the Poetry of Robert
Duncan,” Modern Language Studies (special issue on “The Problem
of Beauty,” ed. Lisa Samuels) 27 no. 2 (Summer 1997): 9–22.
“From Sight to Shenandoah,” The Bellingham Review 20 (Spring
1997): 38–43.