University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Department of English Literary and Linguistic Studies

John Beck
Postwar American Poetry
ELL 339
the quality of the imagination is to flow, and not to freeze - Emerson, 'The Poet'

Week by Week
All reading will be from Paul Hoover, ed., Postmodern American Poetry (New York: Norton, 1994).
Susan HoweJohn AshberyRobert DuncanRobert CreeleyBarbara Guest
1 The legacy of Whitman and Dickinson   
2 The legacy of modernism
3 Black Mountain
4 Beats
5 The San Francisco Renaissance
6 The New York School
7 L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry
8 Strategies for Reading and Writing
Charles OlsonAllen GinsbergLyn HejinianFrank O'HaraAmiri Baraka
Assessment
2000 word essay
Suggested Further Reading
  • Davidson, Michael, The San Francisco Renaissance: Poetics and Community at Mid-century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).
  • Easthope, Anthony and John Thompson, eds., Contemporary Poetry Meets Modern Theory (London: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991).
  • Fredman, Stephen, The Grounding of American Poetry: Charles Olson and the Emersonian Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
  • Olson, Charles, Call Me Ishmael: A  Study of Melville (London: Cape, 1967).
  • Olson, Charles, In Cold Hell, in Thicket (San Francisco, Four Seasons Foundation, 1967).
  • Olson, Charles, The Maximus Poems (London: Cape Goliard Press, 1970).
  • Olson, Charles, Mayan Letters. Edited and with a preface by Robert Creeley (London: Cape, 1968).
  • Olson, Charles, Poetry and Truth: The Beloit Lectures and Poems. Transcribed and edited by George F. Butterick (San Francisco, Four Seasons Foundation, 1971).
  • Shapiro, David,  John Ashbery: An Introduction to the Poetry (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979).

    • Ward, Geoff, Statutes of Liberty: The New York School of Poets (London: Macmillan, 1993).
    Internet Resources
    The sites listed below are highly recommended
    Modern American Poetry
    Electronic Poetry Center
    Modern & Contemporary American Poetry
    Academy of American Poets
    Poetry and the Public Sphere
    Jacket Magazine
    Geoff Ward, Language Poetry and the American Avant-garde
    John Beck
    Department of English literary and Linguistic Studies
    University of Newcastle
    Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 7RU
    J.M.Beck@ncl.ac.uk