Various (Watten, Barrett (Editor); Hejinian, Lyn (Editor); Benedetti, David; Gottlieb, Michael; Silliman, Ron et al.)

Poetics Journal No. 10 (Knowledge, June 1998)

Berkeley, CA: Poetics Journal, 1998. First Edition. Softcover. “This essay is about the relationship between knowledge and the literary imagination–a relationship in which knowledge may be the object of literary effort (the writer seeks knowledge) or it may be the subject of its activity (the writer is knowledge). I’m going to talk about two model knowers, one who knows by acquiring knowledge and the other by making it. It is in the context of these two figures or tropes that I want to implicate some of the issues which both poetry and persons are currently confronting. These are literary tropes, but the knowledge I’m speaking of is not exclusively literary knowledge. Current literary interest in knowledge–and its implicit questions with regard to both literary devices (details) and literary method (address from and to the world)--finds itself in what social theory might call a liminal period–at a threshold or, to enlarge the metaphorical landscape, along a border. The question of boundaries, of possible shifts or displacements along them, and the question of what is being bounded (or unbounded) are preeminent ones. If we are indeed in a liminal period, then the border is not out there somewhere at the edge of the frame but rather it is here, at zero degree, where the X and Y coordinates meet. It is a site of encounter, a point of transition. The marginal is all around. The transgressivity, sometimes overt, sometimes implicit, that motivates certain strategies in much current work, is meaningful only in liminal situations.”--Lyn Hejinian, “La Faustienne,” pg. 10. Offered today is the tenth number of the legendary avant-garde poetry magazine, Poetics Journal No. 10, June 1998. Edited by Language poets Lyn Hejinian (1941-2024) & Barrett Watten (b. 1948), Poetics Journal was not only influential in establishing many Language poets and their works, but also illuminated other sections of the literary avant-garde that were based in the San Francisco/Bay/Los Angeles areas, as well as around the world. Poetics Journal No. 10 features: “Seeking a Sentence” by Pierre Alferi (1963-2023) French novelist, essayist, poet & son of legendary philosopher Jacques Derrida; the above quoted “La Faustienne” by Lyn Hejinian, co-editor and Language poet; “Seven Poems” by Michael Davidson (b. 1944); “The Tormentor of Life” by Ilya Kutik (b. 1961), poet, and founder of Russian metarealism; “Althusser Metonymy China Wall” by George Hartley (b. 1957); “CIA Sentences” by Rod Smith (b. 1962), poet, editor, and publisher; “Thinking You Know” by Reva Wolf (b. 1956), art historian, scholar, and poet; “Interview by Chris Tysh” with Carla Harryman (b. 1952), noted Language poet; “Fame” by Robert Gluck (b. 1947,) poet, writer, and New Narrative theorist; and “Five Poems” by Michael Gottlieb (b. 1951), among many other great contributions! From the collection of the aforementioned Barrett Watten, professor of Creative Writing at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan & foundational member of the Language Poets Movement, with whom we’re honored to be acquainted. Trade-format softcover. First & presumably only printing. In very fine condition with minor wear to fine edges, and slight smudging to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #9279]

Price: $50.00 save 10% $45.00