Poetry at stake : lyric aesthetics and the challenge of technology /

Lyric poets have traditionally claimed autonomy of the subjective voice as the guarantor of pure poetic expression. Noland (Univ. of California, Irvine) argues convincingly that since Rimbaud (1854-91), both theoreticians and practitioners of poetry have come to acknowledge and even celebrate heteronomous (subject to outside authority) influence as an important, perhaps inescapable, feature of poetic creativity. The author points to Rimbaud's verse for its reflection of contemporary technology (theater of the feerie) and commerce as the poet's intentional and self-conscious assimilation of then-current and evolving culture. Examining theoreticians--especially Adorno but also Apollinaire, Breton, and Haraway--and adding an ingenious interpretive analyses of her own, Noland illustrates the extent to which and how the character of various poets, performers, and even a dress designer's productions mediate a dialectic between artist and public. She applies her "poetics" to Blaise Cendrars, designer Sonia Delaunay, Rene Char (whose cryptographic poetry camouflaged messages during the French resistance in WW II), punk-rock star Patti Smith, and entertainer Laurie Anderson. Rewarding but challenging in its use of abstract discourse, this volume will find an audience among serious advanced students of literary theory and aesthetics. Includes extensive notes, general index, and an index of primary sources. D. A. Collins; emeritus, Kalamazoo College