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Charles Olson’s Epic Advances

Shaping U.S. Poetic Tradition

Charles Olson’s Epic Advances cover

Charles Olson’s Epic Advances

Shaping U.S. Poetic Tradition

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Pre-order. Available 04 Feb 2027
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Description

Timothy J. Cook examines the poetic development of Charles Olson while also highlighting his lasting impact on avant-garde literature and the epic poetic tradition in the United States from after World War II through to the present.

Cook delves into the movement in United States poetry that worked to establish a “homemade” epic poetic tradition through a smattering of U.S. writers undertaking the arduous task of casting their imaginative worlds through poetry's master form. Emerging as an an agent of change from modernism to postmodernism, Olson utilized the field of poetry to enhance his process and positioning in the world. This books presents the decades-long story of epic U.S. poetry passing from Pound to Olson, and onto Jack Clarke and Albert Glover. Arguing in favor of the establishment of an epic U.S. tradition with Olson as the connecting figure this study surveys the advances of Olson's “projective” poetic tradition, painting a detailed portrait of Olson and the fields that he inhabited and inspired.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Introduction – Surveying the Modernist Field
A “Homemade” Epic Tradition and Olson's Advances
Part 1 – Olson and the Old Guard
1. A Changing of the Modernist Avant-Garde: Pound and Olson
2. Contested Modernity: Eliot's “Different Voices” or Olson's “Fetid Mass”
3. A “trap on purpose laid” Begets a Homegrown Epic
Part 2 – Olson and the New Guard
4. Objectivist and Projective Verse: Oppen, Creeley, and Olson
5. Duncan (and Olson) After H. D.
6. Collapsing Modern Estrangement: Olson's Evolving Process
Part 3 – Olson's Legacy
7. Post-Black Mountain Stirrings: Olson in Buffalo, 1963-65
8. Olson's Pedagogical Legacy: “A Plan for a Curriculum of the Soul”
9. Black Arts and Projectivism: Baraka after Olson
Conclusion: Olson Today
Works Cited

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published 04 Feb 2027
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Pages 256
ISBN 9798216372080
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 229 x 152 mm
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

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