The Poetics of Agency
Action and Form in Post-War U.S. Poetry
Will be published approx. on 16. April 2026
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-350-41722-9 (ISBN)
Description
Focusing on the poetry and poetics of four pivotal authors, this book examines how experimental approaches to poetic form in the post-war United States rejected the model of the indivisible subject as the principal locus of artistic creation, and in so doing reframed period-defining questions surrounding the limits and possibilities of human agency.
In the decades following the Second World War, poetry in the U.S. was marked by a resurgence of manifesto culture, where practitioners and scholars from a range of political persuasions debated fiercely the common presumptions underpinning the practice and interpretation of poetry. These debates were all primarily concerned with the agency of poetic writing and performance, including what cognitive or affective processes particular formal arrangements can be said to enact within a reader, or how different approaches to the writing and reading of poetry might encourage more desirable modes of acting in the world. Looking specifically at the work of Charles Olson, Langston Hughes, Frank O'Hara and Denise Levertov, this book asks what role poetry plays in conceptualising human agency, and what interdisciplinary place the practice of poetry has within questions typically framed by the disciplines of philosophy and the social sciences.
In the decades following the Second World War, poetry in the U.S. was marked by a resurgence of manifesto culture, where practitioners and scholars from a range of political persuasions debated fiercely the common presumptions underpinning the practice and interpretation of poetry. These debates were all primarily concerned with the agency of poetic writing and performance, including what cognitive or affective processes particular formal arrangements can be said to enact within a reader, or how different approaches to the writing and reading of poetry might encourage more desirable modes of acting in the world. Looking specifically at the work of Charles Olson, Langston Hughes, Frank O'Hara and Denise Levertov, this book asks what role poetry plays in conceptualising human agency, and what interdisciplinary place the practice of poetry has within questions typically framed by the disciplines of philosophy and the social sciences.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
1 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
573 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-41722-9 (9781350417229)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2026
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€94.49
Available for download
E-Book
03/2026
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€94.49
Available for download
Person
Tymek Woodham is a Teaching Associate at University College London, UK.
Content
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations and Figures
Introduction: The Poetics of Agency
Part one: Claiming Agency
1. Squaring the Circle: Charles Olson Between Land and Sea
2. The Maximus Poems: Tidal Dislocations, Earthly Pivots, Cosmic Silence 95
Part two: Surviving Agency
3. 'Late' Langston Hughes and the Agency of Interstitial Space
4. Improvisation and Embodiment in Montage of a Dream Deferred
Part Three: Mediating Agency
5. Newsprint, Cinema, Radio, Television: Medial Friction in Frank O'Hara's Poetry
6. 'These dedlie strokes': Biotherm and the Song of His Salves
Part Four: Mourning Agency
7. Vulnerable Elegies: Denise Levertov and the Mourning of Agency
8. 'fragments of light': Holding to the Act in Relearning the Alphabet
Coda: I-Who?-Sing America
Works Cited
Index
Abbreviations and Figures
Introduction: The Poetics of Agency
Part one: Claiming Agency
1. Squaring the Circle: Charles Olson Between Land and Sea
2. The Maximus Poems: Tidal Dislocations, Earthly Pivots, Cosmic Silence 95
Part two: Surviving Agency
3. 'Late' Langston Hughes and the Agency of Interstitial Space
4. Improvisation and Embodiment in Montage of a Dream Deferred
Part Three: Mediating Agency
5. Newsprint, Cinema, Radio, Television: Medial Friction in Frank O'Hara's Poetry
6. 'These dedlie strokes': Biotherm and the Song of His Salves
Part Four: Mourning Agency
7. Vulnerable Elegies: Denise Levertov and the Mourning of Agency
8. 'fragments of light': Holding to the Act in Relearning the Alphabet
Coda: I-Who?-Sing America
Works Cited
Index