Understanding Adrienne Rich

by Jeannette E. Riley

Overview

The journey of an important feminist writer through poetry, prose, and politics

Among the most celebrated American poets of the past half century, Adrienne Rich was the recipient of numerous awards, including the Bollingen Prize, the National Book Award, and the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award. In Understanding Adrienne Rich, Jeannette E. Riley assesses the full scope of Rich's career from 1957 to her death in 2012 through a chronological exploration of her poetry and prose.

Riley details the evolution of Rich's feminist poetics as she investigated issues of identity, sexuality, gender, the desire to reclaim women's history, and what she terms "the dream of a common language." Throughout the book she documents Rich's gradually developing assertion that poetry can create social change and engage people in the democratic process. Interweaving explications of Rich's poetry with analysis of her prose, Riley offers a close look at the development of the author's voice from formalist poet to feminist visionary to citizen poet.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781643365268
Publisher:	University of South Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/12/2024
Series:	Understanding Contemporary American Literature
Pages:	142
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.39(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jeannette E. Riley is professor of English and gender and women's studies at the University of Rhode Island. Her writings on Adrienne Rich have appeared in edited collections dedicated to Rich's work and in Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal.

Table of Contents

Series Editor's Preface xi

Preface xiii

Abbreviations xvii

Chapter 1 Understanding Adrienne Rich 1

Chapter 2 "A Life I didn't choose / chose me": Transitions 16

Chapter 3 Feminist Poetics 39

Chapter 4 Entering History 58

Chapter 5 Poetry and Politics 84

Bibliography 105

Index 111

What People are Saying About This

Margaret Randall

Adrienne Rich took on the issues of our time as no one before or since and created a brand-new idiom to convey a poetry of witness and essays of extraordinary brilliance. In Understanding Adrienne Rich, Jeannette E. Riley does Rich and her work a great service: drawing a map that continually moves between the life and the word with a brilliance of its own. This is an important contribution to understanding and appreciating one of our truly great voices.

Craig Werner

Throughout her career, Adrienne Rich resisted all attempts to limit or contain the wild energy of language and consciousness, insisting on the power of poetry to act in the political world. Clear and complex in equal measure, Jeannette E. Riley's Understanding Adrienne Rich is an exemplary response to Rich's call. Combining a convincing overview of the poet's career with attentive readings of crucial poems, Riley provides an ideal introduction for general readers and a solid foundation for future critical conversations.

Editorial Reviews

"Throughout her career, Adrienne Rich resisted all attempts to limit or contain the wild energy of language and consciousness, insisting on the power of poetry to act in the political world. Clear and complex in equal measure, Jeanette Riley's Understanding Adrienne Rich is an exemplary response to Rich's call. Combining a convincing overview of the poet's career with attentive readings of crucial poems, Riley provides an ideal introduction for general readers and a solid foundation for future critical conversations."--Craig Werner, author of Adrienne Rich: The Poet and Her Critics


"Adrienne Rich took on the issues of our time as no one before or since and created a brand-new idiom to convey a poetry of witness and essays of extraordinary brilliance. In Understanding Adrienne Rich, Jeannette E. Riley does Rich and her work a great service: drawing a map that continually moves between the life and the word with a brilliance of its own. This is an important contribution to understanding and appreciating one of our truly great voices."--Margaret Randall, author of She Becomes Time and Haydée Santamaría, Cuban Revolutionary: She Led by Transgression

From the Publisher