"In Intricate Thicket: Some Late Modernist Poetries, Mark Scroggins writes with wit and dash about a fascinating range of key twentieth- and twenty-first-century poets and writers. In nineteen lively and accessible essays, he persuasively argues that the innovations of modernist verse were not replaced by postmodernism, but rather those innovations continue to infuse contemporary writing and poetry with intellectual and aesthetic richness. In these essays, Scroggins reviews the legacy of Louis Zukofsky, delineates the exceptional influence of the Black Mountain poets, and provides close readings of a wealth of examples of poetic works from poets who have carried the modernist legacy into contemporary poetry. He traces with an insider's keen observation the careers of many of the most dynamic, innovative, and celebrated poets of the past half-century, among them Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ronald Johnson, Rae Armantrout, Harryette Mullen, and Anne Carson. In a concluding pair of essays, Scroggins situates his own practice within the broad currents he has described. He reflects on his own aesthetics as a contemporary poet and, drawing on his extensive study and writing about Louis Zukofsky, examines the practical and theoretical challenges of literary biography. While the core of these essays is the interpretation of poetry, Scroggins also offers clear aesthetic evaluations of the successes and failures of the poetries he examines. Scroggins engages with complex and challenging works, and yet his highly accessible descriptions and criticisms avoid theoretical entanglements and specialized jargon. Intricate Thicket yields subtle and multifaceted insights to experts and newcomers alike. "-- Provided by publisher. "This project gathers essays on a wide range of key twentieth and twenty-first century poets and writers. Scroggins examines the legacy of Louis Zukofsky (the subject of his two earlier books with the University of Alabama Press), assesses the extraordinarily influential Black Mountain poets, and provides close readings of individual books and detailed career overviews of a number of the most dynamic, innovative, and celebrated poets of the past half-century, among them Ian Hamilton Finlay, Ronald Johnson, Rae Armantrout, Harryette Mullen, Anne Carson, and others. Taken together these essays make a cumulative argument for the persistent vitality of the modernist tradition in contemporary writing, and for the intellectual and aesthetic richness made available by modernist techniques of composition. These essays are rich with detail and careful close interpretation, and are written in a lively, accessible style. While Scroggins does not shy away from engaging with complex and challenging works, his writing is pitched towards an interested, educated readership, and steers clear of theoretical entanglements and specialized jargon. And while interpreting poems is at the center of these essays, Scroggins does not hesitate to make aesthetic judgments about the successes or failures of particular texts. He situates his own critical practice and his own aesthetic investments in a concluding pair of essays, one of them a consideration of the practical and theoretical challenges of literary biography (with special reference to his work on the critically acclaimed The Poem of a Life: A Biography of Louis Zukofsky) and the other a reflection on his own aesthetics as a publishing poet"-- Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 265-275) and index.