"A substantial contribution on three fronts: it identifies and
associates for the first time a large number of poems pertinent to
nuclear criticism; it advances our understanding of the subject of
'nuclearity' in our time; and it provides surprising insights into
the verse it considers. . . . It is also an act of social
conscience, not an apparent feature in most scholarly
works."--William J. Scheick, J. R. Millikan Centennial Professor of
English and American Literature, University of Texas at Austin The
eve of the second millennium falls 50 years after the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Looking across the spectrum of
American poetry since 1945, John Gery explores the role that poets
have begun to play in the nuclear age. While their diverse voices
join in protesting against the end of the world, poetry also
embodies what Gery calls "the way of nothingness" in contemporary
experience, an individual sense of human continuity paradoxically
coupled with a global sense of impending annihilation. The first
full-length study of nuclear theory and American poetry, this book
examines four distinct poetic approaches to nuclear
culture--protest poetry, apocalyptic lyric poetry, psychohistorical
poetry, and the poetry of uncertainty. Each is developed through a
discussion of representative poems from a range of poets, including
an extended study of works by Denise Levertov, Richard Wilbur,
James Merrill, and John Ashbery. As a chorus of voices, Gery
contends, these poets articulate both resistance to annihilation
and an acceptance of the nuclear present. What recommends this
poetry, he argues, is not its oppositional posture as much as its
"unique imaginative ability to connect the material threat and
symbolic presence of nuclearism with the deepest confines of the
human spirit." He concludes that art, especially poetry, has a
critical role to play in our time. Though it serves as a resource
on nuclear-age poetry and theory, the book also speaks to general
readers interested in art, literature, and contemporary American
culture. John Gery is professor of English at the University of New
Orleans. He is the author of two books of poems, The Enemies of
Leisure (1995) and Charlemagne: A Song of Gestures (1983), and of
articles on contemporary poetry in journals such as Verse,
Critique, Essays in Literature, and War, Literature, and the Arts.
General
Imprint: |
University Press of Florida
|
Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
February 1996 |
First published: |
November 1995 |
Authors: |
John Gery
|
Dimensions: |
229 x 152 x 25mm (L x W x T) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
240 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8130-1417-3 |
Categories: |
Books >
Earth & environment >
The environment >
Nuclear issues
|
LSN: |
0-8130-1417-4 |
Barcode: |
9780813014173 |
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