Attention Equals Life

The Pursuit of the Everyday in Contemporary Poetry and Culture

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Poetry History & Criticism
Cover of the book Attention Equals Life by Andrew Epstein, Oxford University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Andrew Epstein ISBN: 9780190631727
Publisher: Oxford University Press Publication: June 10, 2016
Imprint: Oxford University Press Language: English
Author: Andrew Epstein
ISBN: 9780190631727
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication: June 10, 2016
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Language: English

Poetry has long been thought of as a genre devoted to grand subjects, timeless themes, and sublime beauty. Why, then, have contemporary poets turned with such intensity to documenting and capturing the everyday and mundane? Drawing on insights about the nature of everyday life from philosophy, history, and critical theory, Andrew Epstein traces the modern history of this preoccupation and considers why it is so much with us today. Attention Equals Life argues that a potent hunger for everyday life explodes in the post-1945 period as a reaction to the rapid, unsettling transformations of this epoch, which have resulted in a culture of perilous distraction. Epstein demonstrates that poetry is an important, and perhaps unlikely, cultural form that has mounted a response, and even a mode of resistance, to a culture suffering from an acute crisis of attention. In this timely and engaging study, Epstein examines why a compulsion to represent the everyday becomes predominant in the decades after modernism and why it has so often sparked genre-bending formal experimentation. With chapters devoted to illuminating readings of a diverse group of writers--including poets associated with influential movements like the New York School, language poetry, and conceptual writing--the book considers the variety of forms contemporary poetry of everyday life has taken, and analyzes how gender, race, and political forces all profoundly inflect the experience and the representation of the quotidian. By exploring the rise of experimental realism as a poetic mode and the turn to rule-governed "everyday-life projects," Attention Equals Life offers a new way of understanding a vital strain at the heart of twentieth- and twenty-first century literature. It not only charts the evolution of a significant concept in cultural theory and poetry, but also reminds readers that the quest to pay attention to the everyday within today's frenetic world of smartphones and social media is an urgent and unending task.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Poetry has long been thought of as a genre devoted to grand subjects, timeless themes, and sublime beauty. Why, then, have contemporary poets turned with such intensity to documenting and capturing the everyday and mundane? Drawing on insights about the nature of everyday life from philosophy, history, and critical theory, Andrew Epstein traces the modern history of this preoccupation and considers why it is so much with us today. Attention Equals Life argues that a potent hunger for everyday life explodes in the post-1945 period as a reaction to the rapid, unsettling transformations of this epoch, which have resulted in a culture of perilous distraction. Epstein demonstrates that poetry is an important, and perhaps unlikely, cultural form that has mounted a response, and even a mode of resistance, to a culture suffering from an acute crisis of attention. In this timely and engaging study, Epstein examines why a compulsion to represent the everyday becomes predominant in the decades after modernism and why it has so often sparked genre-bending formal experimentation. With chapters devoted to illuminating readings of a diverse group of writers--including poets associated with influential movements like the New York School, language poetry, and conceptual writing--the book considers the variety of forms contemporary poetry of everyday life has taken, and analyzes how gender, race, and political forces all profoundly inflect the experience and the representation of the quotidian. By exploring the rise of experimental realism as a poetic mode and the turn to rule-governed "everyday-life projects," Attention Equals Life offers a new way of understanding a vital strain at the heart of twentieth- and twenty-first century literature. It not only charts the evolution of a significant concept in cultural theory and poetry, but also reminds readers that the quest to pay attention to the everyday within today's frenetic world of smartphones and social media is an urgent and unending task.

More books from Oxford University Press

Cover of the book The Goddess as Role Model by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book Union Pacific by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book The Color of Our Shame by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book A Historical Guide to Mark Twain by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book The Ethics Police? by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book Inner Virtue by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book The Drama of Ideas by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book Dreaming Souls by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book Universal Life by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book Cowboy Christians by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book The Oxford Handbook of Hegel by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book The Philippine Economy by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book Deceptive Ambiguity by Police and Prosecutors by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book The Power Triangle by Andrew Epstein
Cover of the book The Tumbleweed Society by Andrew Epstein
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy