1st Edition
The New York School Poets and the Neo-Avant-Garde Between Radical Art and Radical Chic
Biography
Mark Silverberg is Associate Professor of American Literature at Cape Breton University in Sydney, Nova Scotia. His essays on twentieth century literature and culture have appeared in journals such as English Studies in Canada, Arizona Quarterly, and Contemporary Literature.
'This book is the first to take it as a given that O'Hara, Ashbery and Schuyler are quite probably the greatest poets of the second half of the twentieth century. As such, it lifts the critical debate to a new level. This stimulating, intellectually hospitable and user-friendly study will interest long-time and first-time readers alike, and should stand for decades as a quotable resource.' Geoff Ward, Royal Holloway College, University of London, UK
’Mark Silverberg’s study of the New York School as a neo-avant-garde offers an incisive account of how the school’s transformation of avant-garde practices informs its poetics, politics, and history: smart, well-written, and well-conceived, it sets the new gold standard on the New York School.’ Susan Rosenbaum, Associate Professor of American Literature, University of Georgia. Author of Professing Sincerity: Modern Lyric Poetry, Commercial Culture, and the Crisis in Reading (2007)
’...a reliable introduction to five poets who had, at least, one another, a city or two, and a set of fine painters in common; five poets the future is going to continue to read.’ Times Literary Supplement
’... offers an engaging analysis of the relationship of the new avant-garde poets to past avant-garde poets, especially those in 1920s Paris... Recommended.’ Choice
'I was impressed overall by the book's breadth of reference, sensitivity of interpretation and the rich thesis that shone throughout. ... Silverberg's beautiful readings of James Schuyler's poetry are a major advance in the critical literature, given the scandalous paucity of attention paid to this quietly innovative writer. The New York School Poets and The Neo-Avant-Garde will surely become a primary reference point for scholars, students and lovers of the New York School, as it will prove an audacious redefinition of the neo-avant-garde as slippery, seductive and powerfully indifferent.' Review of English Studies
