The Craft of Poetry
Proposal review
Dialogues on Minimal Interpretation
Author(s)
Attridge, Derek
Staten, Henry
Language
EnglishAbstract
This book presents an innovative format for poetry criticism that its authors call "dialogical poetics." This approach shows that readings of poems, which in academic literary criticism often look like a product of settled knowledge, are in reality a continual negotiation between readers. But Derek Attridge and Henry Staten agree to rein in their own interpretive ingenuity and "minimally interpret" poems – reading them with careful regard for what the poem can be shown to actually say, in detail and as a whole, from opening to closure. Based on a series of emails, the book explores a number of topics in the reading of poetry, including historical and intellectual context, modernist difficulty, the role of criticism, and translation. This highly readable book will appeal to anyone who enjoys poetry, offering an inspiring resource for students whilst also mounting a challenge to some of the approaches to poetry currently widespread in the academy.
Keywords
Young Man; Chopin; Lenox Avenue; Au Lecteur; Shakespeare’s Sonnets; Minimal Reading; Rhetorical Cadence; Syntactic Architecture; Nueva York; Poetry; Broken Heart; Poetics; Sawdust Restaurants; Verse; Ethico Political Intervention; Routledge; Sick Rose; Dark Girl; Small Pony; Duple Rhythm; Prime Spring; Weary Heart; Centre Skin; True Minds; Du Mal; Overwhelming Question; Jazz Rhythm; Dramatic Utterance; Rilke’s PoemDOI
10.4324/9781315724980ISBN
9781317532590, 9781317532576, 9781317532583, 9781138850064, 9781315724980, 9781138850071, 9781317532590Publisher
Taylor & FrancisPublisher website
https://taylorandfrancis.com/Publication date and place
Oxford, 2015Grantor
Imprint
RoutledgeClassification
Poetry
Literary theory