Jonathan Culler
Boldly taking on, in best Benjaminian fashion, the relation between poetry and capitalism, Chris Nealon offers compelling readings of poets' responses to socio-economic change, both as poetic theme and as determinant of aspects of poetic form. Whether discussing the range of poets or taking on the critics who he believes have obscured poetry's relation to capitalism, he is stimulating, shrewd, and provocative.
Jonathan Culler, Cornell University
Michael Moon
Nealon makes a strongly compelling case in this book that 'capital' and its crises have continued to pervade and magnetize much of the most cannily powerful poetry of the last century. He gives a nuanced yet succinct account of this extensive and complex history. The thoroughness of his scholarship and the trenchancy of his method enable him to perform this daunting task with authority and assurance. His study will interest scholars as well as non-academic readers. Indeed, with this book, Nealon is likely to join the select company of a handful of critics of poetry, such as Charles Altieri and Maria Damon, whom poets actually read.
Michael Moon, Emory University
Wai Chee Dimock
Chris Nealon knows his poets inside out. Taking delight in the micro details and endless syntactical possibilities of material life, he makes a stunning case that capitalism and consumer culture are indeed the stuff of which poetry is made.
Wai Chee Dimock, Yale University
Sharon Marcus
The Matter of Capital is a gift for anyone who wonders about the relationship between art and political economy. It is a superhero of a book, able to leap centuries at a single bound; spinning a web that constellates Pound, Auden, Ashbery, Spicer, Hejinian and some very recent poets; zipping back and forth across the membranes that divide and link poetry and capitalism. As a theorist, historian, and critic, Nealon is no stranger to poetic tone, but this book's chief resource for imagining life differently is its pedagogical rhythm. Establishing a tempo that is both jaunty and deliberate, Nealon slows down the manic pace of life under late-late capitalism, and gives it a new pulse. The beat that emerges is relaxed, capering, and exhilarating.
Sharon Marcus, Columbia University