American Originality

A luminous collection of essays from one of our most original and influential poets Five decades after her debut poetry collection, Firstborn, Louise Gl?ck is a towering figure in American letters. Written with the same probing, analytic control that has long distinguished her poetry, American Originality is Gl?ckÆs second book of essaysùher first, Proofs and Theories, won the 1993 PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. Gl?ckÆs moving and disabusing lyricism is on full display in this decisive new collection. From its opening pages, American Originality forces readers to consider contemporary poetry and its demigods in radical, unconsoling, and ultimately very productive ways. Determined to wrest ample, often contradictory meaning from our current literary discourse, Gl?ck comprehends and destabilizes notions of ônarcissismö and ôgeniusö that are unique to the American literary climate. This includes erudite analyses of the poets who have interested her throughout her own career, such as Rilke, Pinsky, Chiasson, and Dobyns, and introductions to the first books of poets like Dana Levin, Peter Streckfus, Spencer Reece, and Richard Siken. Forceful, revealing, challenging, and instructive, American Originality is a seminal critical achievement.

• | Author: Louise Gl?ck
• | Publisher: Fsg Adult
• | Publication Date: Apr 03, 2018
• | Number of Pages: 208 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback/Literary Collections
• | ISBN-10: 0374537461
• | ISBN-13: 9780374537463