Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. xiv, 326 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

1. "Word of Mouth brings together the insights of queer and lyric theory to tell the story of how gossip modeled forms of sociality and voice that poets experimented with over the course of the twentieth century. Through a set of case studies of culturally diverse American poets--Gertrude Stein, Langston Hughes, Frank O'Hara, James Merrill, and others--who absorbed and contended with the loose talk that swirled about them and their work, the book argues that gossip became a vehicle for the performance of alternative sexualities and concomitant meditations on alternative modes of poetic practice. At the heart of this argument is a queer revaluation of modern lyric poetry. Attending to gossip's key role in modern and contemporary poetry enables a recognition of the unpredictable ways that conventional understandings of the modern lyric poem--as, for example, an utterance smudging the lines between private and public, knowing and unknowing, intimacy and strangeness--have been shaped by, and afforded a uniquely suitable space for, the expression of queer sensibilities. More than simply mapping a curious poetic mode, then, Word of Mouth contributes a crucial, and largely neglected, queer perspective to current lyric studies and its renewed scholarly debate over the practices and forms of lyric poetry. The book presents new and instructive queer contexts for understanding the influential formal achievements of Stein, Hughes, O'Hara, and Merrill, and uncovers the unexpected ways that the history of the modern lyric intertwines with histories of sexuality"--

Series statement

1. Hopkins studies in modernism

Uniform title

1. Hopkins studies in modernism.

Alternative title

1. Gossip and American poetry

Subject

1. Homosexuality and literature
2. American poetry
3. United States
4. Criticism, interpretation, etc
5. Privacy in literature
6. History
7. 1900-1999
8. American poetry > 20th century > History and criticism
9. Gossip in literature
10. Homosexuality and literature > United States > History > 20th century

Genre/Form

1. Criticism, interpretation, etc.
2. History.

Contents

1. Introduction : the poet and the gossip -- "They will tell well" : Gertrude Stein, address, and gossip -- "Ain't you heard?" : Langston Hughes's queer gossip -- "The dish that's art" : Frank O'Hara's self-gossip -- "The celestial salon" : James Merrill and the afterlife of gossip -- Coda : status update.

Call number

1. JFE 18-4741

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-315) and index.

Author

1. Bennett, Chad, 1976- author.

Title

1. Word of mouth : gossip and American poetry / Chad Bennett.

Publisher

1. Baltimore, Maryland : Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018.

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Series

1. Hopkins studies in modernism
2. Hopkins studies in modernism.

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages 249-315) and index.

Chronological term

1. 1900-1999

LCCN

1. 2017039407

ISBN

1. 9781421425375 hardcover alkaline paper
2. 1421425378 hardcover alkaline paper

Research call number

1. JFE 18-4741