The Prospect of Lyric, edited by Bainard Cowan Reading a great lyric poem we know that lyric is more than a convention, that it speaks of an encounter of genuine depth. But what is the terrain of that encounter? The fourth in the Genres of Literature series enters into the heart of the lyric experience, with General Editor Louise Cowan analyzing the lyric impulse, its ontological ground, and its relation to the life of a culture in her Introduction to the volume. The following sixteen essays examine key poets and texts, from Biblical and Greek antiquity through the pinnacles of the English lyric and on to the modern American and Caribbean world, ending with a frank critique of the conditions for poetry in contemporary culture by poet Frederick Turner. Authors include: Daniel Russ, Karl Maurer, Gregory Roper, Scott F. Crider, Robert Alexander, Louise Cowan, Anna Priddy, Bernadette Waterman Ward, Glenn Arbery, Seemee Ali, Robert Scott Dupree, Larry Allums, Claudia Allums, Mary Di Lucia, Bainard Cowan, and Frederick Turner. Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture Publications

Exploring the art and life of this important American artist whose work bridged the gaps between abstraction, feminism, and Blackness Howardena Pindell: Reclaiming Abstraction is a fascinating examination of the multifaceted career of artist, activist, curator, and writer Howardena Pindell (b. 1943). It offers a fresh perspective on her abstract practice from the late 1960s through the early 1980s-a period in which debates about Black Power, feminism, and modernist abstraction intersected in uniquely contentious yet generative ways. Sarah Louise Cowan not only asserts Pindell's rightful place within the canon but also recenters dominant historical narratives to reveal the profound and overlooked roles that Black women artists have played in shaping modernist abstraction. Pindell's career acts as a springboard for a broader study of how artists have responded during periods of heightened social activism and used abstraction to convey political urgency. With works that drew on Ghanaian textiles, administrative labor, cosmetics, and postminimalism, Pindell deployed abstraction in deeply personal ways that resonated with collective African diasporic and women's practices. In her groundbreaking analysis, Cowan argues that such work advanced Black feminist modernisms, diverse creative practices that unsettle racist and sexist logics.

Larry Allums, editor Louise Cowan, general editor The community of scholar-critics that brought out The Terrain of Comedy has produced the second volume in its studies of the four genres, with Larry Allums as editor. Louise Cowan postulates a culture-generating cosmos as the identifying mark of epic. The essays illustrate the applicability of her theory of genres to major works in the epic tradition. An excellent resource for those studying the social, psychological and historical aspects of epic as a literary art form. Dallas Institute Publications publishes works concerned with the imaginative, mythic, and symbolic sources of culture. 378 pages, indexed.