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Poetry Communities and the Individual Talent

Poetry Communities and the Individual Talent brings together prominent and emerging scholars in the field of 20th and 21st century poetry and poetics to discuss the role that community plays in how poetry is received, circulated, and understood.

Poetry Communities and the Individual Talent is co-hosted by Jonathan Fedors and Katie Price. Co-sponsors include: the Kelly Writers House, the University of Pennsylvania English Department, Bob Perelman, the Poetry & Poetics Graduate Group, the Office of the Provost, the Alice Paul Center for Research on Gender, Sexuality, and Women, and Asian American Studies.

Friday, April 13

Introductory Remarks by Jonathan Fedors and Katie Price

  • complete recording (8:44): MP3

Revising Historical Trajectories, Moderated by Michael Golston

  • Kathy Lou Schultz, “The Chicago School, Langston Hughes, and the Early Poetry of Melvin Tolson”
  • Andrea Actis, “‘My Kind of Seriousness’: On Laura Riding and the Antinomies of American Poetry”
  • Rebecca Gaydos, “The Technology of Expression: Revisiting Charles Olson’s ‘Projective Verse’”
  • complete recording (1:44:06): MP3

Theory and Practice of Community, Moderated by Katie Price

  • Adeena Karasick, “Exile and Nomadicism: The Immunity of Community”
  • Al Filreis, “Academic Politics: Clearing a Space for Communities”
  • Jacob Edmond, “Conceptual Writing: Community and Anti-Community”
  • complete recording (1:35:08): MP3

Keynote Panel: On Poetry Communities, Moderated by Jonathan Fedors

  • Maria Damon, “Poetic Isolation and Collective Clumsiness: An Antonymic Exploration”
  • Craig Dworkin, “Scapegoat: Community, Influence, and Exclusion”
  • Brian Reed, “The New York School and Australia’s Generation of ’68″
  • Steven Yao, “Some Contradictions of Poetry and Community”
  • complete recording (2:04:14): MP3

Saturday, April 14

Resisting Communities, Moderated by Charles Bernstein

  • Jessyka Finley, “‘How I Got Ovah’: Humor and Discontent in Women’s Poetry of the Black Arts Movement”
  • Tom Fisher, “Literary Communism and Language Poetry”
  • Joshua Kotin, “J. H. Prynne and the Cambridge School” (talk not included in recordings)
  • complete recording (41:24): MP3

Othering Self-Construction, Moderated by Max Cavitch

  • Juliana Leslie, “A Prayer for Modernism: Gertrude Stein’s Portraits and Prayers“
  • John Paetsch, “Comparative Serial Poetics: Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan”
  • Maude Emerson, “‘Improbable Selves: Jamesian Psychology in Schuyler and O’Hara”
  • complete recording (1:40:24): MP3

Complicating Post-War Reputations, Moderated by Sarah Dowling

  • Hannah Baker Saltmarsh, “Thom Gunn’s Transatlantic Response to Confessional Poetry”
  • Piotr Gwiazda, “‘A naked singularity’: James Merrill and Identity Politics”
  • Stefania Heim, “Trespass and Presumption: Susan Howe and Muriel Rukeyser”
  • complete recording (1:33:52): MP3

Communities of Print Culture, Moderated by Alan Golding

  • Sarah Stone, “The Plain Edition: Gertrude Stein and Modernist Book History”
  • Josh Schneiderman, “The Republic of Postcards: The New York School and Lyric Obscurity”
  • Kaplan Harris, “Vampire Editing: Dodie Bellamy and Mirage“
  • complete recording (1:29:18): MP3

Closing Remarks by Bob Perelman

  • complete recording (20:03): MP3

These sound recordings are being made available for noncommercial and educational use only. All rights to this recorded material belong to the respective authors. Used with permission of the authors. Distributed by PennSound.