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How can poetry embrace morality through focusing on metaphrasts? What is the relation between an allummette and the alpha rhythm? Why is it that money has turned into a metonym of goodness and success? And above all, is it still possible to think of the human subject as a viable category in late modernity? These are some of the questions that J. H. Prynne s poetry addresses. Levity of Design voices a critique of present-day society very much from within, and seeks to demonstrate how Prynne has contrived to single-handedly overcome the impasse created by the legacy of poststructuralism. In a milieu of avant-garde linguistic experiment developed from the modernist techniques of Pound and Olson, but also from the early Eliot as well as Velimir Khlebnikov, and against the background of the writings of Heidegger and Adorno, these poems develop a language in which the notion of man can be restituted.
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Levity of Design
Levity of Design: Man and Modernity in the Poetry of J. H. Prynne
By
Wit Píetrzak
Levity of Design: Man and Modernity in the Poetry of J. H. Prynne, by Wit Píetrzak This book first published 2012 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2012 by Wit Píetrzak All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4046-7, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4046-0
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ................................................................................... vii Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 J. H. Prynne, Avant-Garde and Neo-Modernism Chapter One............................................................................................... 11 Subjectivity under Siege Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 41 Disentangling the Subject Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 93 Beyond Stagnation Chapter Four............................................................................................ 143 Stories of Disentanglement in Blue Slides at Rest Bibliography............................................................................................ 157 Index of Names........................................................................................ 163
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book is the result of a sudden, yet profound fascination with the poetry of J. H. Prynne. Not only has his work exerted an enormous influence over my understanding and appreciation of poetry but also has brought about changes in my perception of the task of the literary critic. There are books that we simply have to write, in order to put in writing the genuine amazement with a particular oeuvre, to phrase the peculiar thrall in which it has kept us; this is one of those books. Reading and rereading Prynne’s poems has become a way of conversing with myself and the world as my experience of his work turned from an unnerving interest into a thrilling discovery of the unexpected. I am truly grateful to J. H. Prynne for the illuminating conversations and insightful remarks about my work; without his advice the present study would surely have faltered. I would like to thank Dr Rod Mengham for his assistance and enthusiasm for what then appeared more of an impression of a study than a real plan. I am also much indebted to Professor Jerzy Jarniewicz f