Future-Founding Poetry: Topographies of Beginnings from Whitman to the Twenty-First Century
An investigation of how American poetry since Whitman makes its beginnings, with what means and to which political and aesthetic ends, and how it addresses fundamental questions about what the future is and how it may be affectednow.



Although issues of futurity have become more and more central to literary and cultural studies in recent years, especially in environmental criticism, no scholarly work has yet addressed the topic of beginnings in American poetryin sufficient scope or detail or with adequate theoretical background. This book is a study of how beginnings are made in American poetry, and to what ends. It borrows Walt Whitman's term "future-founding" to establish a theory ofpoetic beginnings that asks how poetry relates to notions of the future and how it imagines, constructs, and influences this future in the present. Furthermore, it seeks to change the way literary scholars think about futurity with regard to American poetry: they most often conceive of it in terms of newness alone, yet a deeper theorization of beginnings must open up new ways of understanding the complexities of this relation. With chapters on Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Muriel Rukeyser, Allen Ginsberg, and future-founding poetry after 9/11, this book explains how American poetry makes its beginnings, with what means and to which political and aesthetic ends, and how it addresses fundamental questions about what the future is and how it may be affected now.

Sascha Pöhlmann is Associate Professor of American Literary History at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich.
1141733815
Future-Founding Poetry: Topographies of Beginnings from Whitman to the Twenty-First Century
An investigation of how American poetry since Whitman makes its beginnings, with what means and to which political and aesthetic ends, and how it addresses fundamental questions about what the future is and how it may be affectednow.



Although issues of futurity have become more and more central to literary and cultural studies in recent years, especially in environmental criticism, no scholarly work has yet addressed the topic of beginnings in American poetryin sufficient scope or detail or with adequate theoretical background. This book is a study of how beginnings are made in American poetry, and to what ends. It borrows Walt Whitman's term "future-founding" to establish a theory ofpoetic beginnings that asks how poetry relates to notions of the future and how it imagines, constructs, and influences this future in the present. Furthermore, it seeks to change the way literary scholars think about futurity with regard to American poetry: they most often conceive of it in terms of newness alone, yet a deeper theorization of beginnings must open up new ways of understanding the complexities of this relation. With chapters on Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Muriel Rukeyser, Allen Ginsberg, and future-founding poetry after 9/11, this book explains how American poetry makes its beginnings, with what means and to which political and aesthetic ends, and how it addresses fundamental questions about what the future is and how it may be affected now.

Sascha Pöhlmann is Associate Professor of American Literary History at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich.
135.0 In Stock
Future-Founding Poetry: Topographies of Beginnings from Whitman to the Twenty-First Century

Future-Founding Poetry: Topographies of Beginnings from Whitman to the Twenty-First Century

by Sascha P hlmann
Future-Founding Poetry: Topographies of Beginnings from Whitman to the Twenty-First Century

Future-Founding Poetry: Topographies of Beginnings from Whitman to the Twenty-First Century

by Sascha P hlmann

Hardcover

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Overview

An investigation of how American poetry since Whitman makes its beginnings, with what means and to which political and aesthetic ends, and how it addresses fundamental questions about what the future is and how it may be affectednow.



Although issues of futurity have become more and more central to literary and cultural studies in recent years, especially in environmental criticism, no scholarly work has yet addressed the topic of beginnings in American poetryin sufficient scope or detail or with adequate theoretical background. This book is a study of how beginnings are made in American poetry, and to what ends. It borrows Walt Whitman's term "future-founding" to establish a theory ofpoetic beginnings that asks how poetry relates to notions of the future and how it imagines, constructs, and influences this future in the present. Furthermore, it seeks to change the way literary scholars think about futurity with regard to American poetry: they most often conceive of it in terms of newness alone, yet a deeper theorization of beginnings must open up new ways of understanding the complexities of this relation. With chapters on Whitman, William Carlos Williams, Langston Hughes, Muriel Rukeyser, Allen Ginsberg, and future-founding poetry after 9/11, this book explains how American poetry makes its beginnings, with what means and to which political and aesthetic ends, and how it addresses fundamental questions about what the future is and how it may be affected now.

Sascha Pöhlmann is Associate Professor of American Literary History at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781571139511
Publisher: BOYDELL & BREWER INC
Publication date: 12/15/2015
Series: European Studies in North American Literature and Culture , #20
Pages: 424
Product dimensions: 6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

SASCHA PÖHLMANN is Professor of North American Literature and Culture at TU Dortmund University, Germany.

Table of Contents

Introduction: On How to Begin, and Where
Whitman: Beginning American Poetry
Williams: Beginning Again
Hughes: Urgent Beginnings
Rukeyser: Communal Beginnings
Ginsberg: Defiant Beginnings
Future-Founding Poetry after 9/11
Conclusion: On Where to End
Works Cited
Notes
Index
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