Research Catalog

Title

The muse of abandonment : origin, identity, mastery, in five American poets / Lee Upton.

Author

Upton, Lee, 1953-

Publication

Lewisburg [Pa.] : Bucknell University Press ; London : Associated University Presses, [1998], ©1998.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

162 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• The Muse of Abandonment examines personal and cultural forms of abandonment in the poetry of Charles Wright, Russell Edson, Jean Valentine, James Tate, and Louise Gluck. These poets register the tremors of the post-modern exhaustion of universals and a conflicted desire for authenticating presences.
• The first book to study these poets as members of a generation, The Muse of Abandonment analyses the poets' recasting of confessional and surrealistic legacies and discusses their reflections on coercion of thought and behavior, and an atmosphere in contemporary culture that would trivialize private sensibility.

Subjects

• Alienation (Social psychology) in literature
• Edson, Russell > Criticism and interpretation
• Liberty in literature
• Glück, Louise, 1943- > Criticism and interpretation
• Wright, Charles, 1935- > Criticism and interpretation
• Identity (Psychology) in literature
• American poetry > 20th century > History and criticism
• Power (Social sciences) in literature
• Valentine, Jean > Criticism and interpretation
• Tate, James, 1943-2015 > Criticism and interpretation

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. The Doubting Penitent: Charles Wright's Epiphanies of Abandonment -- 2. Cruel Figures: The "Anti-Forms" of Russell Edson -- 3. "Dream Barker": Preoedipal Fusion and Radiant Boundaries in Jean Valentine -- 4. The Master of the Masterless: James Tate and the Pleasures of Error -- 5. Fleshless Voices: Louise Gluck's Rituals of Abjection and Oblivion.

ISBN

0838753965 (alk. paper)

LCCN

98012153

OCLC

• 38249347
• ocm38249347

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries