Overview

Close Listening brings together seventeen strikingly original essays, especially written for this volume, on the poetry reading, the sound of poetry, and the visual performance of poetry. While the performance of poetry is as old as poetry itself, critical attention to modern and postmodern poetry performance has been surprisingly slight. This volume, featuring work by critics and poets such as Marjorie Perloff, Susan Stewart, Johanna Drucker, Dennis Tedlock, and Susan Howe, is the first comprehensive introduction to the ways in which twentieth-century poetry has been practiced as a performance art. From the performance styles of individual poets and types of poetry to the relation of sound to meaning, from historical and social approaches to poetry readings to new imaginations of prosody, the entries gathered here investigate a compelling range of topics for anyone interested in poetry. Taken together, these essays encourage new forms of ""close listenings""--not only to the printed text of poems but also to tapes, performances, and other expressions of the sounded and visualized word. The time is right for such a volume: with readings, spoken word events, and the Web gaining an increasing audience for poetry, Close Listening opens a number of new avenues for the critical discussion of the sound and performance of poetry.

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9780195109924

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Reviews

Close Listening pays homage to...the twentieth century poetries often ignored or overinterpreted, to theories not listened to, to strategies not employed, and makes public a social history, a canvas, a recording. --Washington Review<br> .,. it might very well be the most important book on poetry published in some years...Bernstein's collection provides analysis that should help us to think more about kinds of readings and the formal and social factors to be considered in writing about or discussing them. --Modernism/Modernity<br>

Close Listening pays homage to...the twentieth century poetries often ignored or overinterpreted, to theories not listened to, to strategies not employed, and makes public a social history, a canvas, a recording. --Washington Review. ..it might very well be the most important book on poetry published in some years...Bernstein's collection provides analysis that should help us to think more about kinds of readings and the formal and social factors to be considered in writing about or discussing them. --Modernism/Modernity

Close Listening pays homage to...the twentieth century poetries often ignored or overinterpreted, to theories not listened to, to strategies not employed, and makes public a social history, a canvas, a recording. --Washington Review ...it might very well be the most important book on poetry published in some years...Bernstein's collection provides analysis that should help us to think more about kinds of readings and the formal and social factors to be considered in writing about or discussing them. --Modernism/Modernity Close Listening pays homage to...the twentieth century poetries often ignored or overinterpreted, to theories not listened to, to strategies not employed, and makes public a social history, a canvas, a recording. --Washington Review ...it might very well be the most important book on poetry published in some years...Bernstein's collection provides analysis that should help us to think more about kinds of readings and the formal and social factors to be considered in writing about or discussing them. --Modernism/Modernity [A] useful foray into a hot (and hotly contested) field... Bernstein's introduction is one of the highlights of the book. It is a well-written and cogent analysis of the issues raised in the various essays. --South Atlantic Review

Author Information

Charles Bernstein is David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters at the State University of New York, Buffalo. His books of essays and poems include Content's Dream: Essays 1975-1984, A Poetics, Republics of Reality: Poems 1975-1995, Dark City, and The Sophist. He also edited The Politics of Poetic Form: Poetry and Public Policy and coedited L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E.

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