Research Catalog

Title

The poem electric : technology and the American lyric / Seth Perlow.

Author

Perlow, Seth

Publication

Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press, [2018]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

288 pages; 22 cm

Summary

• "An enlightening examination of the relationship between poetry and the information technologies increasingly used to read and write it. Many poets and their readers believe poetry helps us escape straightforward, logical ways of thinking. But what happens when poems confront the extraordinarily rational information technologies that are everywhere in the academy, not to mention everyday life? Examining a broad array of electronics--including the radio, telephone, tape recorder, Cold War-era computers, and modern-day web browsers--Seth Perlow considers how these technologies transform poems that we don't normally consider "digital." From fetishistic attachments to digital images of Emily Dickinson's manuscripts to Jackson Mac Low's appropriation of a huge book of random numbers originally used to design thermonuclear weapons, these investigations take Perlow through a revealingly eclectic array of work, offering both exciting new voices and reevaluations of poets we thought we knew. With close readings of Gertrude Stein, Frank O'Hara, Amiri Baraka, and many others, The Poem Electric constructs a distinctive lineage of experimental writers, from the 1860s to today. Ultimately, Perlow mounts an important investigation into how electronic media allows us to distinguish poetic thought from rationalism. Posing a necessary challenge to the privilege of information in the digital humanities, The Poem Electric develops new ways of reading poetry, alongside and against the electronic equipment that is now ubiquitous in our world"--
• "The Poem Electric argues that electronic media has enabled a lineage of experimental poets and their readers to distinguish poetic thought from rationalism. Scholars of literature and technology affiliate computers with information and knowledge, but these devices just as often leave us uncertain, disoriented, or frustrated. This study attends to such disorderly mental states by reading poetry through the equipment of its production and reception"--

Alternative Title

Technology and the American lyric

Subjects

• American poetry
• SOCIAL SCIENCE / Poverty & Homelessness
• Literature and technology
• 1900-1999
• TECHNOLOGY & ENGINEERING / Social Aspects
• Criticism, interpretation, etc
• Rationalism
• Experimental poetry, American > History and criticism
• American poetry > 20th century > History and criticism
• LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction: Technologies of Lyric Exemption -- 1. Affect: The Possessions of Emily Dickinson -- 2. Chance: Gertrude Stein, Jackson Mac Low, and A Million Random Digits -- 3. Anonymity: Frank O'Hara Makes Strangers with Friends -- 4. Improvisation: Amirit Baraka, Allen Ginsberg, and Spontaneous Poetics -- Conclusion: Lyric and Objecthood -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- Index.

Call Number

JFD 19-709

ISBN

• 9781517903657
• 1517903653
• 9781517903664
• 1517903661

LCCN

2018016693

OCLC

1031053207

Author

Perlow, Seth, author.

Title

The poem electric : technology and the American lyric / Seth Perlow.

Publisher

Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press, [2018]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

1900-1999

Other Form:

Online version: Perlow, Seth, author. Poem electric First edition. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2018 9781452958675 (DLC) 2018041974

Research Call Number

JFD 19-709