Watten, Barrett

Progress/ Under Erasure

Los Angeles, CA: Green Integer, 2005. First Edition Thus. Softcover. “When Progress was first published in 1985, it arrived at a moment of high literary tension: the moment in which the poetry of the Language School decisively broke through the cultural gatekeepers’ iron fence and, to a wider audience than its immediate members, offered new paradigms for poetic form. Nothing less than entirely new uses for poetry was implied: this was not merely a matter of stylistic difference but a radical shift in the politics of poetry. It was at this moment that Progress appeared: a work that, in many ways and for readers both supportive and not, refused to adhere to current codes and conventions, even oppositional ones, of poetic address. Twenty years after it was written, and in the company of a number of long works by contemporaries in the 1980s, the poem continues to argue for a contextual and constructivist mode of poetry, drawing as it does from the cultural concerns of the modern epic or long poem rather than the subject-centered expressiveness of the lyric. Resolutely a poem about the meaning of poetry within the contexts that produce it, Progress stands as an argument within and about the vicissitudes of culture.”--Barrett Watten, “Preface,” pg(s). 5-6. Barrett Watten (b. 1948) is an American editor, professor of Creative Writing at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and poet who is a foundational member of the Language Poets Movement. Offered today is the 2005 collection of poetry Progress / Under Erasure. Originally published in 1985, Progress was greeted with enthusiasm and public debate. Its linguistically charged, emotionally relentless and culturally reflexive non-narrative form was pitched against the media saturation and political banality of the Reagan era. Similarly, Under Erasure was originally published in a limited edition in 1991, and dealt with the political malaise of the American Marxist Left after the collapse of the Soviet Union (thus concluding the Cold War); of which it deals with considerably. This particular work Progress / Under Erasure brings the two separate collections together in one cohesive volume for the first time. A cultural and political poetic cornerstone that is not only criminally underrated, but continues to be endlessly relevant. Watten’s style is masterfully rendered here in this collection; an amalgamation of Modernism, the Beat Generation, Surrealism, and charged with political overtones, the Language Movement (as it is delivered through the vehicle of Watten’s writing) is consolidated into this incredible collection of poetry. From the collection of the aforementioned author himself Watten, with whom we’re honored to be acquainted. Small-format softcover: First Edition Thus ("First Green Integer Edition," as stated on copyright page); First Printing, with no reference to other printings, thereon. In very fine condition with only minor wear to fine edges, and very light smudging/scratching to front and back covers. Very Fine. [Item #9399]

Price: $40.00 save 10% $36.00