Summary
Hejinian, a major figure in American poetics and a force in the language poetry movement, eloquently shares her critical perceptions in this first volume of her essays, lectures, meditations, and introductions to others' work. Drawn from the last 25 years of her important teaching and writing career, here she explores, among other subjects, Sir Francis Bacon, Faust, Sheherazade, Russian formalism, Hannah Arendt, and of course her major influence Gertrude Stein, bringing to each topic her rigorous engagement with inquiry and the gift of her imagination.
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Media Reviews
"...THE LANGUAGE OF INQUIRY...not only provides critical insight into the working practice...of this important poet; more broadly, it establishes a a critical framework from which to consider how the interplay between poetry and poetics intersects with 'the [social] spaces in which meaning occurs' and thus becomes a vehicle for social change."
-- Rain Taxi Review of Books
"[A]n enactment of poetics in the best sense; it is both about poetry and poetic in its own way; it enlivens our understanding and appreciation for Hejinian’s poetry."
-- How2
Bibliographic Details
Publisher: Univ of California Pr
Published date: 2000
Size: 6 x 8.75 inches
Weight: 1.55 pounds
Pages: 438
Publisher's Notes
THE LANGUAGE OF INQUIRY is a comprehensive and wonderfully readable collection of twenty essays written over a span of almost twenty five years. Like many of the Language Poets with whom she has been associated since the mid 1970s, Hejinian turns to language as a social space, a site of both philosophical inquiry and political address.
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