G. O. Hutchinson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199279418
- eISBN:
- 9780191707322
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279418.003.0009
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This piece was the first to discuss the relation of a new papyrus to Ovid's Metamorphoses. The papyrus exhibits a sequence of unjoined elegiac accounts of metamorphoses; the individual accounts are ...
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This piece was the first to discuss the relation of a new papyrus to Ovid's Metamorphoses. The papyrus exhibits a sequence of unjoined elegiac accounts of metamorphoses; the individual accounts are shown to have been relatively short. The work is argued to be probably Hellenistic, and possibly by Parthenius. It throws light on the typology of Hellenistic poetry, much of which presents formally linked or formally unlinked sequences of parallel items. The work brings out for us, and possibly Ovid's first readers, the sweep and ambition of Ovid's design. Examination of the shared episodes displays Ovid's large interconnections, particularly within the poem's books, which are held to be significant structures. The role of length and brevity in the poem is illuminated by the papyrus. The appendix discusses the structure of Metamorphoses 9, built on the opposition of gender.Less
This piece was the first to discuss the relation of a new papyrus to Ovid's Metamorphoses. The papyrus exhibits a sequence of unjoined elegiac accounts of metamorphoses; the individual accounts are shown to have been relatively short. The work is argued to be probably Hellenistic, and possibly by Parthenius. It throws light on the typology of Hellenistic poetry, much of which presents formally linked or formally unlinked sequences of parallel items. The work brings out for us, and possibly Ovid's first readers, the sweep and ambition of Ovid's design. Examination of the shared episodes displays Ovid's large interconnections, particularly within the poem's books, which are held to be significant structures. The role of length and brevity in the poem is illuminated by the papyrus. The appendix discusses the structure of Metamorphoses 9, built on the opposition of gender.
Efrossini Spentzou
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199255689
- eISBN:
- 9780191719608
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199255689.003.0007
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This chapter explores the Heroides as short stories. It addresses aspects of brevity that involve more than Quellenforschung; brevity, as envisaged here, works as a catalyst that sets off a complex ...
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This chapter explores the Heroides as short stories. It addresses aspects of brevity that involve more than Quellenforschung; brevity, as envisaged here, works as a catalyst that sets off a complex war of supremacy within the collection. The heroines' short stories reveal the heroines' daring protest against the mega-narratives of the past, but their fervent rhetoric also encompasses their creator.Less
This chapter explores the Heroides as short stories. It addresses aspects of brevity that involve more than Quellenforschung; brevity, as envisaged here, works as a catalyst that sets off a complex war of supremacy within the collection. The heroines' short stories reveal the heroines' daring protest against the mega-narratives of the past, but their fervent rhetoric also encompasses their creator.
Simon Stjernholm
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781474467476
- eISBN:
- 9781474491204
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474467476.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter explores a willingness on behalf of certain Muslim preachers to move beyond traditional preaching styles and create material that fits well within current social media practices. ...
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This chapter explores a willingness on behalf of certain Muslim preachers to move beyond traditional preaching styles and create material that fits well within current social media practices. Focusing on the media productions of two Muslim preachers in Sweden, the chapter analyses how they experiment with oratory genres and modes. Using self-imposed brevity and multimodal communication in a type of media production defined here as a ‘reminder’, these preachers try to exhort their audiences to consider matters felt to be of pressing religious nature. The examples illustrate attempts to expand the reach of Islamic religious discourses beyond mosque environments and into the everyday life of an audience, with the potential of achieving a different kind of rhetorical work than a regular lecture or sermon.Less
This chapter explores a willingness on behalf of certain Muslim preachers to move beyond traditional preaching styles and create material that fits well within current social media practices. Focusing on the media productions of two Muslim preachers in Sweden, the chapter analyses how they experiment with oratory genres and modes. Using self-imposed brevity and multimodal communication in a type of media production defined here as a ‘reminder’, these preachers try to exhort their audiences to consider matters felt to be of pressing religious nature. The examples illustrate attempts to expand the reach of Islamic religious discourses beyond mosque environments and into the everyday life of an audience, with the potential of achieving a different kind of rhetorical work than a regular lecture or sermon.
Ann Jefferson
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199270842
- eISBN:
- 9780191710292
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270842.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, European Literature
This chapter examines Schwob's account of biography as the basis for the literariness of literature. Biography's concerns with the unique and the individual — often in the form of incidental details ...
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This chapter examines Schwob's account of biography as the basis for the literariness of literature. Biography's concerns with the unique and the individual — often in the form of incidental details to be found in the record of a person's life — are, according to Schwob, precisely those of literature itself. Brevity is a concomitant necessity for the biographer. Schwob possessed considerable erudition of the kind usually associated with the biographical dictionary, but he exploits it to privilege the unique biographical detail. Like Nerval, his texts do not just borrow or reinvent the biographical genre, but may be read as reflections on the principles of biography. With Schwob literature and biography become one, and biography provides the means of defining the literariness of literature.Less
This chapter examines Schwob's account of biography as the basis for the literariness of literature. Biography's concerns with the unique and the individual — often in the form of incidental details to be found in the record of a person's life — are, according to Schwob, precisely those of literature itself. Brevity is a concomitant necessity for the biographer. Schwob possessed considerable erudition of the kind usually associated with the biographical dictionary, but he exploits it to privilege the unique biographical detail. Like Nerval, his texts do not just borrow or reinvent the biographical genre, but may be read as reflections on the principles of biography. With Schwob literature and biography become one, and biography provides the means of defining the literariness of literature.
Jill Mann
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199217687
- eISBN:
- 9780191712371
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199217687.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature, European Literature
This chapter provides a theoretical basis for the discussion of individual works in subsequent chapters. Taking examples from the Latin prose rendition of Phaedran fables known as the Romulus ...
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This chapter provides a theoretical basis for the discussion of individual works in subsequent chapters. Taking examples from the Latin prose rendition of Phaedran fables known as the Romulus vulgaris, it analyses ‘how animals mean’ in beast fable, emphasizing the deliberate brevity and sparseness of fable narrative, and connecting these features with the mistrust of words that fable characteristically teaches. In contrast, in beast epic (represented here by the Ysengrimus), words proliferate, and the simple moral conclusion in which the action of beast fable culminates is dissolved in a sea of animal moralizing whose effect is comic rather than didactic. Beast fable and beat epic also differ in their relation to historical reality: whereas fable is a‐historical in itself but can be used as a whole to comment on a historical situation, epic can incorporate topical satire into its narrative.Less
This chapter provides a theoretical basis for the discussion of individual works in subsequent chapters. Taking examples from the Latin prose rendition of Phaedran fables known as the Romulus vulgaris, it analyses ‘how animals mean’ in beast fable, emphasizing the deliberate brevity and sparseness of fable narrative, and connecting these features with the mistrust of words that fable characteristically teaches. In contrast, in beast epic (represented here by the Ysengrimus), words proliferate, and the simple moral conclusion in which the action of beast fable culminates is dissolved in a sea of animal moralizing whose effect is comic rather than didactic. Beast fable and beat epic also differ in their relation to historical reality: whereas fable is a‐historical in itself but can be used as a whole to comment on a historical situation, epic can incorporate topical satire into its narrative.
David French
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199246304
- eISBN:
- 9780191697562
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199246304.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, Military History
This chapter examines the desert war experience of the British Army during the period from 1940 to 1942. The British were defeated three times by the Germans and the Axis forces in operations ...
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This chapter examines the desert war experience of the British Army during the period from 1940 to 1942. The British were defeated three times by the Germans and the Axis forces in operations Brevity, Battleaxe, and Crusader. This defeat highlighted the weakness of the British Army in combined arms operation and showed the greater institutional experience of the Axis forces at the tactical level. The Axis forces' formation was so organized that motorized artillery and tanks could quickly provide each other with mutual support.Less
This chapter examines the desert war experience of the British Army during the period from 1940 to 1942. The British were defeated three times by the Germans and the Axis forces in operations Brevity, Battleaxe, and Crusader. This defeat highlighted the weakness of the British Army in combined arms operation and showed the greater institutional experience of the Axis forces at the tactical level. The Axis forces' formation was so organized that motorized artillery and tanks could quickly provide each other with mutual support.
Yohei Igarashi
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781503610040
- eISBN:
- 9781503610736
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9781503610040.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
This chapter considers William Wordsworth’s thirty-year civil service career as a Distributor of Stamps to examine how Romantic literature was shaped by several intertwined developments: the ...
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This chapter considers William Wordsworth’s thirty-year civil service career as a Distributor of Stamps to examine how Romantic literature was shaped by several intertwined developments: the formation of a fiscal bureaucracy in Britain during the long eighteenth century, the attendant proliferation of bureaucratic genres and media, and utilitarian theories of administrative efficiency. This chapter argues that Wordsworth’s writing responds to what it calls bureaucratic form: the form taken by writing when the efficient capturing and communicating of data, or “particulars,” are principal considerations. Operating in concert with the contemporaneous virtue of brevity in writing and long-standing concerns about brevitas in literature, bureaucratic form made the economical collection and delivery of information an ideal for all kinds of writing. This chapter shows that Lyrical Ballads (1798), Essays upon Epitaphs (comp. 1810), and above all, The Excursion (1814) accommodate, as much as they ignore, the rule of streamlined writing.Less
This chapter considers William Wordsworth’s thirty-year civil service career as a Distributor of Stamps to examine how Romantic literature was shaped by several intertwined developments: the formation of a fiscal bureaucracy in Britain during the long eighteenth century, the attendant proliferation of bureaucratic genres and media, and utilitarian theories of administrative efficiency. This chapter argues that Wordsworth’s writing responds to what it calls bureaucratic form: the form taken by writing when the efficient capturing and communicating of data, or “particulars,” are principal considerations. Operating in concert with the contemporaneous virtue of brevity in writing and long-standing concerns about brevitas in literature, bureaucratic form made the economical collection and delivery of information an ideal for all kinds of writing. This chapter shows that Lyrical Ballads (1798), Essays upon Epitaphs (comp. 1810), and above all, The Excursion (1814) accommodate, as much as they ignore, the rule of streamlined writing.
John Deathridge
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520254534
- eISBN:
- 9780520934610
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520254534.003.0017
- Subject:
- Music, History, Western
This chapter examines the phenomenon of the demise of operas. Although not the only one, Wagner was someone who left an indelible stamp on twentieth-century opera. Every figure of importance is said ...
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This chapter examines the phenomenon of the demise of operas. Although not the only one, Wagner was someone who left an indelible stamp on twentieth-century opera. Every figure of importance is said to have reacted to him, and rarely indifferently. The (now underestimated) literary impact of Wagner's manifestos against opera contributed to its supposed demise not only with polemical brevity but also with eye-crossing tedium in longer theoretical treatises that nevertheless seem to have impressed influential figures in the later part of the nineteenth century. Finally, the chapter suggests that Wagner's influence raised the stakes of opera to such a pitch that it proved extremely difficult for those after him to choose the right form of musical dramaturgy, and to reconcile that choice with the heavy demands placed on works of art in the modern era.Less
This chapter examines the phenomenon of the demise of operas. Although not the only one, Wagner was someone who left an indelible stamp on twentieth-century opera. Every figure of importance is said to have reacted to him, and rarely indifferently. The (now underestimated) literary impact of Wagner's manifestos against opera contributed to its supposed demise not only with polemical brevity but also with eye-crossing tedium in longer theoretical treatises that nevertheless seem to have impressed influential figures in the later part of the nineteenth century. Finally, the chapter suggests that Wagner's influence raised the stakes of opera to such a pitch that it proved extremely difficult for those after him to choose the right form of musical dramaturgy, and to reconcile that choice with the heavy demands placed on works of art in the modern era.
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- August 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780197538616
- eISBN:
- 9780197538647
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780197538616.003.0020
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
Legal maxims of fiqh are epithetic statements giving the essence of a detailed legal chapter or issue in a brief sentence or two. This chapter puts together a number of such legal maxims of concern ...
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Legal maxims of fiqh are epithetic statements giving the essence of a detailed legal chapter or issue in a brief sentence or two. This chapter puts together a number of such legal maxims of concern to halal and haram for better understanding, especially for nonspecialists. The maxims are presented in bare skeletal forms and confined to the actual text in English translation, with their equivalent Arabic appearing in Appendix 2. The main purpose is to see how the subjects of concern find expression in this genre of the fiqh literature. The maxims presented are self-explanatory for the most part and endorse the information contained in this volume, though they may occasionally add new points.Less
Legal maxims of fiqh are epithetic statements giving the essence of a detailed legal chapter or issue in a brief sentence or two. This chapter puts together a number of such legal maxims of concern to halal and haram for better understanding, especially for nonspecialists. The maxims are presented in bare skeletal forms and confined to the actual text in English translation, with their equivalent Arabic appearing in Appendix 2. The main purpose is to see how the subjects of concern find expression in this genre of the fiqh literature. The maxims presented are self-explanatory for the most part and endorse the information contained in this volume, though they may occasionally add new points.
Scott Mehl
- Published in print:
- 2022
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781501761171
- eISBN:
- 9781501761195
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501761171.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature
This chapter reviews the haiku's appearance on an international stage from the perspective of that form's first European-language translators, who had to grapple with the intractable problem of ...
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This chapter reviews the haiku's appearance on an international stage from the perspective of that form's first European-language translators, who had to grapple with the intractable problem of haiku's brevity. Haiku poets of the time regarded the same question with urgency: Would the haiku survive in the modern period? The chapter then introduces haiku poet Masaoka Shiki who warned repeatedly that the haiku was doomed to imminent extinction unless a more catholic approach to poetic diction were adopted. In order for Shiki's assertion of haiku's literariness to be seen in a multinational frame, this chapter investigates an exchange of articles between Ueda Kazutoshi, a prominent Japanese linguist, and Karl Florenz, a professor of German at Imperial University in Tokyo, who had just published an anthology of Japanese poems in German translation. The Ueda-Florenz debate centered on the literary value of traditional Japanese poetic forms—are they literature or not? It then emphasizes Florenz's argument that the chōka was superior to the far briefer haikai and the waka. Ueda, on the other hand, argued that Florenz's translations had failed to convey what was worthwhile in those shorter forms.Less
This chapter reviews the haiku's appearance on an international stage from the perspective of that form's first European-language translators, who had to grapple with the intractable problem of haiku's brevity. Haiku poets of the time regarded the same question with urgency: Would the haiku survive in the modern period? The chapter then introduces haiku poet Masaoka Shiki who warned repeatedly that the haiku was doomed to imminent extinction unless a more catholic approach to poetic diction were adopted. In order for Shiki's assertion of haiku's literariness to be seen in a multinational frame, this chapter investigates an exchange of articles between Ueda Kazutoshi, a prominent Japanese linguist, and Karl Florenz, a professor of German at Imperial University in Tokyo, who had just published an anthology of Japanese poems in German translation. The Ueda-Florenz debate centered on the literary value of traditional Japanese poetic forms—are they literature or not? It then emphasizes Florenz's argument that the chōka was superior to the far briefer haikai and the waka. Ueda, on the other hand, argued that Florenz's translations had failed to convey what was worthwhile in those shorter forms.
Alan Rosenthal
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781784993023
- eISBN:
- 9781526109804
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784993023.003.0013
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
The chapter covers the author’s first experiences of being at a film pitching session in Australia, and goes on to illustrate how best to pitch in today’s competitive world. Though written with much ...
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The chapter covers the author’s first experiences of being at a film pitching session in Australia, and goes on to illustrate how best to pitch in today’s competitive world. Though written with much humour and extensive use of amusing anecdotes, the chapter if full of very sane advice in approaching one of the essential tools for bringing a film to marketLess
The chapter covers the author’s first experiences of being at a film pitching session in Australia, and goes on to illustrate how best to pitch in today’s competitive world. Though written with much humour and extensive use of amusing anecdotes, the chapter if full of very sane advice in approaching one of the essential tools for bringing a film to market
Harald Weinrich
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226886015
- eISBN:
- 9780226886039
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226886039.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, General
Life is short. This indisputable fact of existence has driven human ingenuity since antiquity, whether through efforts to lengthen our lives with medicine or shorten the amount of time we spend on ...
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Life is short. This indisputable fact of existence has driven human ingenuity since antiquity, whether through efforts to lengthen our lives with medicine or shorten the amount of time we spend on work using technology. Alongside this struggle to manage the pressure of life's ultimate deadline, human perception of the passage and effects of time has also changed. This book examines a range of material—from Hippocrates to Run Lola Run—to put forth a new conception of time and its limits that, unlike older models, is firmly grounded in human experience. The author's analysis of the roots of the word time connects it to the temples of the skull, demonstrating that humans first experienced time in the beating of their pulses. Tracing this corporeal perception of time across literary, religious, and philosophical works, the author concludes that time functions as a kind of sixth sense—the crucial sense that enables the other five. The book is a meditation on life's inexorable brevity.Less
Life is short. This indisputable fact of existence has driven human ingenuity since antiquity, whether through efforts to lengthen our lives with medicine or shorten the amount of time we spend on work using technology. Alongside this struggle to manage the pressure of life's ultimate deadline, human perception of the passage and effects of time has also changed. This book examines a range of material—from Hippocrates to Run Lola Run—to put forth a new conception of time and its limits that, unlike older models, is firmly grounded in human experience. The author's analysis of the roots of the word time connects it to the temples of the skull, demonstrating that humans first experienced time in the beating of their pulses. Tracing this corporeal perception of time across literary, religious, and philosophical works, the author concludes that time functions as a kind of sixth sense—the crucial sense that enables the other five. The book is a meditation on life's inexorable brevity.
Laurence Goldstein (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199664986
- eISBN:
- 9780191748530
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199664986.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
This book looks at brevity as an important topic for interdisciplinary study. It studies the diversity of ways in which brevity is achieved in conversation and examines the psychological, ...
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This book looks at brevity as an important topic for interdisciplinary study. It studies the diversity of ways in which brevity is achieved in conversation and examines the psychological, philosophical, and linguistic problems associated with the subject. When people make a contribution to a conversation, they tend towards brevity: they use elliptical constructions, exploit salient features of the environment in which the conversation is situated, make gestures, take account of what has been said before, either in the present conversation or in previous ones, and tailor their words to what they know of the beliefs and the personalities of the others taking part. In doing all this they generally make no obvious or unusual mental effort, and interpretation and comprehension are not hindered. Some of the problems of explaining this phenomenon are philosophically complex, and invite new explorations in linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and computer science. The book is the culmination of a multidisciplinary research project: it discusses psycholinguistic interpretations of the mechanisms at play in conversation, and takes full account of the latest developments in all the disciplines involved.Less
This book looks at brevity as an important topic for interdisciplinary study. It studies the diversity of ways in which brevity is achieved in conversation and examines the psychological, philosophical, and linguistic problems associated with the subject. When people make a contribution to a conversation, they tend towards brevity: they use elliptical constructions, exploit salient features of the environment in which the conversation is situated, make gestures, take account of what has been said before, either in the present conversation or in previous ones, and tailor their words to what they know of the beliefs and the personalities of the others taking part. In doing all this they generally make no obvious or unusual mental effort, and interpretation and comprehension are not hindered. Some of the problems of explaining this phenomenon are philosophically complex, and invite new explorations in linguistics, neuroscience, psychology, and computer science. The book is the culmination of a multidisciplinary research project: it discusses psycholinguistic interpretations of the mechanisms at play in conversation, and takes full account of the latest developments in all the disciplines involved.
James Doelman
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780719096440
- eISBN:
- 9781526115218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9780719096440.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter outlines the tradition of the epigram in the Classical, Medieval and Renaissance periods, with particular focus on the influence of Martial, Catullus, and the Greek Anthology. Despite ...
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This chapter outlines the tradition of the epigram in the Classical, Medieval and Renaissance periods, with particular focus on the influence of Martial, Catullus, and the Greek Anthology. Despite the genre’s reputation for licentiousness and cynicism, it came to be used for a wide variety of subjects. However, a commitment to brevity and sharpness of wit distinguished the genre regardless of subject and was often noted by Renaissance theorists. The chapter also explores some more limited influences, such as the medieval proverbial epigram, on the Renaissance use of the genre.Less
This chapter outlines the tradition of the epigram in the Classical, Medieval and Renaissance periods, with particular focus on the influence of Martial, Catullus, and the Greek Anthology. Despite the genre’s reputation for licentiousness and cynicism, it came to be used for a wide variety of subjects. However, a commitment to brevity and sharpness of wit distinguished the genre regardless of subject and was often noted by Renaissance theorists. The chapter also explores some more limited influences, such as the medieval proverbial epigram, on the Renaissance use of the genre.
Will Montgomery
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780748695324
- eISBN:
- 9781474490887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695324.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
The chapter on Oppen discusses the status of the empirical in his writing and suggest that it is in tension with his speculative explorations of perception as it is parsed in language. Oppen’s ...
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The chapter on Oppen discusses the status of the empirical in his writing and suggest that it is in tension with his speculative explorations of perception as it is parsed in language. Oppen’s distinctive use of ellipsis and the linebreak is addressed. Montgomery argues that Oppen’s elliptical syntax removed his poetry far from the ideals of clarity, simplicity or directness that he was committed to.Less
The chapter on Oppen discusses the status of the empirical in his writing and suggest that it is in tension with his speculative explorations of perception as it is parsed in language. Oppen’s distinctive use of ellipsis and the linebreak is addressed. Montgomery argues that Oppen’s elliptical syntax removed his poetry far from the ideals of clarity, simplicity or directness that he was committed to.
Will Montgomery
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780748695324
- eISBN:
- 9781474490887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695324.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter considers Niedecker’s version of the Poundian condensare – “this condensery” – to achieve a peculiar balance between aesthetics and the local (Niedecker’s home state contained several ...
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This chapter considers Niedecker’s version of the Poundian condensare – “this condensery” – to achieve a peculiar balance between aesthetics and the local (Niedecker’s home state contained several condenseries, or factories for condensing milk). Montgomery describse how Niedecker developed a poetics informed by a simultaneous commitment to place and displacement. He focuses in particular on a cluster of poems from the early 1960s that sets up an opposition between property and poetry. Niedecker finds imaginative wealth in material impoverishment. This conditions the formal features of her writing.Less
This chapter considers Niedecker’s version of the Poundian condensare – “this condensery” – to achieve a peculiar balance between aesthetics and the local (Niedecker’s home state contained several condenseries, or factories for condensing milk). Montgomery describse how Niedecker developed a poetics informed by a simultaneous commitment to place and displacement. He focuses in particular on a cluster of poems from the early 1960s that sets up an opposition between property and poetry. Niedecker finds imaginative wealth in material impoverishment. This conditions the formal features of her writing.
Will Montgomery
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780748695324
- eISBN:
- 9781474490887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695324.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter describes the effects of compression in Robert Creeley’s poetry of the 1950s and 1960s. Creeley made his name during this period with short and short-lined poems that place great ...
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This chapter describes the effects of compression in Robert Creeley’s poetry of the 1950s and 1960s. Creeley made his name during this period with short and short-lined poems that place great pressure on the linebreak and on small swerves and feints of syntax. Drawing on Creeley’s correspondence with Olson, the chapter argues that Creeley looks for a new articulation of American space in an extremely compact version of poetic form. I discuss the motif of refusal in the writing and take issue, in an argument that is central to my overall thesis, with Charles Altieri’s attack on short form as adequate vehicle for philosophically ambitious poetry.Less
This chapter describes the effects of compression in Robert Creeley’s poetry of the 1950s and 1960s. Creeley made his name during this period with short and short-lined poems that place great pressure on the linebreak and on small swerves and feints of syntax. Drawing on Creeley’s correspondence with Olson, the chapter argues that Creeley looks for a new articulation of American space in an extremely compact version of poetic form. I discuss the motif of refusal in the writing and take issue, in an argument that is central to my overall thesis, with Charles Altieri’s attack on short form as adequate vehicle for philosophically ambitious poetry.
Will Montgomery
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780748695324
- eISBN:
- 9781474490887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695324.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This chapter focuses on Eigner’s minute attention to the local, in which a distinctive observational aesthetic emerges. In Eigner’s writing it is possible to observe, in halting narration, the ...
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This chapter focuses on Eigner’s minute attention to the local, in which a distinctive observational aesthetic emerges. In Eigner’s writing it is possible to observe, in halting narration, the emergence of the world in poetry that is both modest and ambitious. His phenomenologically inflected poems are populated by the birds, sky and trees in immediate view but they are never constrained by his intensely speculative mode of suburban pastoral. This section of the chapter develops the book’s discussion of the relationship between language, object and cognition in the short-form poem of this tradition.Less
This chapter focuses on Eigner’s minute attention to the local, in which a distinctive observational aesthetic emerges. In Eigner’s writing it is possible to observe, in halting narration, the emergence of the world in poetry that is both modest and ambitious. His phenomenologically inflected poems are populated by the birds, sky and trees in immediate view but they are never constrained by his intensely speculative mode of suburban pastoral. This section of the chapter develops the book’s discussion of the relationship between language, object and cognition in the short-form poem of this tradition.
Will Montgomery
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780748695324
- eISBN:
- 9781474490887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695324.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
Grenier, like Larry Eigner, is strongly influenced by Creeley and it ushers in some of the experiments of language writing. This discussion of his work focuses on his Sentences, a box containing ...
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Grenier, like Larry Eigner, is strongly influenced by Creeley and it ushers in some of the experiments of language writing. This discussion of his work focuses on his Sentences, a box containing five hundred index cards, each containing a brief poem. This is read in two contexts: as a development of Pieces-era Creeley, but also read it in the context of Fluxus, notably George Brecht’s FluxboxWater Yam.Less
Grenier, like Larry Eigner, is strongly influenced by Creeley and it ushers in some of the experiments of language writing. This discussion of his work focuses on his Sentences, a box containing five hundred index cards, each containing a brief poem. This is read in two contexts: as a development of Pieces-era Creeley, but also read it in the context of Fluxus, notably George Brecht’s FluxboxWater Yam.
Will Montgomery
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2022
- ISBN:
- 9780748695324
- eISBN:
- 9781474490887
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748695324.003.0009
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
This final chapter discusses a writer who was part of the West Coast Language writing community from the 1970s, yet has always seemed at an odd distance from the poetics of that grouping. Rae ...
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This final chapter discusses a writer who was part of the West Coast Language writing community from the 1970s, yet has always seemed at an odd distance from the poetics of that grouping. Rae Armantrout has, from her very earliest published work, consistently written in a condensed, short-line mode. The chapter discuss texts drawn from throughout her career, focusing on the ways in which equivocation is built into the writing at the most fundamental levels.Less
This final chapter discusses a writer who was part of the West Coast Language writing community from the 1970s, yet has always seemed at an odd distance from the poetics of that grouping. Rae Armantrout has, from her very earliest published work, consistently written in a condensed, short-line mode. The chapter discuss texts drawn from throughout her career, focusing on the ways in which equivocation is built into the writing at the most fundamental levels.
