CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
General Introduction 1
part one: how do e s ly ri c b e co m e a ge nr e ?
section 1 Genre Theory 11
1.1. Gérard Genette, “The Architext” (1979; trans. 1992) 17
1.2. Northrop Frye, “Theory of Genres” (1957) 30
1.3. René Wellek, “Genre Theory, the Lyric, and Erlebnis” (1967) 40
1.4. Ralph Cohen, “History and Genre” (1986) 53
1.5. Jonathan Culler, “Lyric, History, and Genre” (2009) 63
1.6. Stanley Fish, “How to Recognize a Poem When You See One” (1980) 77
section 2 Models of Lyric 86
2.1. W. R. Johnson, “On the Absence of Ancient Lyric Theory” (1982) 91
2.2. Seth Lerer, “The Genre of the Grave and the Origins of the Middle English
Lyric” (1997) 104
2.3. Heather Dubrow, “Lyric Forms” (2000) 114
2.4. Helen Vendler, Introduction to The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets (1997) 128
2.5. M. H. Abrams, “The Lyric as Poetic Norm” (1953) 140
2.6. Herbert F. Tucker, “Dramatic Monologue and the Overhearing of
Lyric” (1985) 144
vi
Contents
part two : twe n ti e th- c ent ury ly r i c r e ad e r s
section 3 Anglo-American New Criticism 159
3.1. I. A. Richards, “The Analysis of a Poem” and “The Definition of
a Poem” (1924) 165
3.2. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, Introduction to
Understanding Poetry (1938) 177
3.3. T. S. Eliot, “The Three Voices of Poetry” (1953) 192
3.4. W. K. Wimsatt and Monroe Beardsley, “The Intentional
Fallacy” (1946) 201
3.5. Reuben Brower, “The Speaking Voice” (1951) 211
section 4 Structuralist Reading 219
4.1. Mikhail Bakhtin, “The Problem of Speech Genres” (1953; trans. 1986) 224
4.2. Roman Jakobson, “Closing Statement: Linguistics and Poetics” (1960) 234
4.3. Michael Riffaterre, “The Poem’s Significance” (1978) 249
section 5 Post-Structuralist Reading 266
5.1. Harold Bloom, “The Breaking of Form” (1979) 275
5.2. Jacques Derrida, “Che cos’è la poesia?” (1988; trans. 1991) 287
5.3. Paul de Man, “Anthropomorphism and Trope in the Lyric” (1984) 291
5.4. Barbara Johnson, “Anthropomorphism in Lyric and Law” (1998) 304
section 6 Frankfurt School and After 319
6.1. Walter Benjamin, “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire” (1939; trans. 1969) 327
6.2. Theodor W. Adorno, “On Lyric Poetry and Society” (1957; trans. 1991) 339
6.3. Fredric Jameson, “Baudelaire as Modernist and Postmodernist: The
Dissolution of the Referent and the Artificial ‘Sublime’ ” (1985) 350
6.4. Drew Milne, “In Memory of the Pterodactyl: The Limits of Lyric
Humanism” (2001) 361
6.5. Stathis Gourgouris, “The Lyric in Exile” (2004) 368
section 7 Phenomenologies of Lyric Reading 382
7.1. Martin Heidegger, “. . . Poetically Man Dwells . . .” (1951; trans. 1971) 390
7.2. Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, “Poetry as Experience: Two Poems by
Paul Celan” (1968; trans. 1999) 399
7.3. Allen Grossman, “Summa Lyrica: A Primer of the Commonplaces in
Speculative Poetics” (1990) 418
7.4. Giorgio Agamben, “The End of the Poem” (1996; trans. 1999) 430
7.5. Simon Jarvis, “Why Rhyme Pleases” (2011) 434
part three : ly ri c d e p a rtu res
vii
section 8 Avant-garde Anti-lyricism 451
Contents
8.1. Marjorie Perloff, “Can(n)on to the Right of Us, Can(n)on to the Left of Us:
A Plea for Difference” (1987) 460
8.2. Charles Altieri, “What Is Living and What Is Dead in American
Postmodernism: Establishing the Contemporaneity of
Some American Poetry” (1996) 477
8.3. Christopher Nealon, “The Matter of Capital, or Catastrophe
and Textuality” (2011) 487
8.4. Craig Dworkin, “Lyric and the Hazard of Music” (2008) 499
section 9 Lyric and Sexual Difference 504
9.1. Nancy J. Vickers, “Diana Described: Scattered Woman and
Scattered Rhyme” (1981) 511
9.2. Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, “Gender, Creativity, and the
Woman Poet” (1979) 522
9.3. Barbara Johnson, “Apostrophe, Animation, and Abortion” (1987) 529
9.4. Thomas E. Yingling, “The Homosexual Lyric” (1990) 541
9.5. Juliana Spahr, Introduction to American Women Poets in the 21st Century:
Where Lyric Meets Language (2002) 557
section 10 Comparative Lyric 568
10.1. Earl Miner, “Why Lyric?” (2000) 577
10.2. Jahan Ramazani, “Traveling Poetry” (2007) 589
10.3. Aamir R. Mufti, “Towards a Lyric History of India” (2004) 603
10.4. Roland Greene, “Inter-American Obversals: Allen Ginsberg and Haroldo
de Campos circa 1960” (2008) 618
10.5. David Damrosch, “Love in the Necropolis” (2003) 632
Contributors 643
Source Acknowledgments 649
Index of Authors and Works 653