Overview

The modernist poetry of Wallace Stevens is replete with moments of theorizing. Stevens regarded poetry as an abstract medium through which to think about and theorize not only philosophical concepts like metaphor and reality, but also a unifying thesis about the nature of poetry itself. At the same time, literary theorists and philosophers have often turned to Stevens as a canonical reference point and influence. In the centenary year of Wallace Stevens’s first collection Harmonium (1923), this collection asks what it means to theorize with Stevens today. Through a range of critical and theoretical perspectives, this book seeks to describe the myriad kinds of thinking sponsored by Stevens’s poetry and explores how contemporary literary theory might be invigorated through readings of Stevens.

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9781837645145

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"""Stevens in his poems here and there did his own theorizing, and after him others' theorizing him has been a scattered and loosely identified project - until now. Gould and Tan have done us a great service by arranging types of speculative thought in the Stevensian project and by convening a remarkable group of critics, scholars, and theorists. They re-read readership, explore modernist unworlding, redefine affect, return to belief and its lack, and seek to reconcile ribald irony and earnest philosophizing. Decades of theorizing Stevens have led to this book; its brilliant curation must be fully encountered."" Al Filreis, Kelly Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, author of Modernism from Right to Left: Wallace Stevens, the Thirties, & Literary Radicalism ""Why is Wallace Stevens quoted and referenced by so many thinkers outside the field of poetry? How does a particular body of work become a focal point for theoreticians across the humanities, and do these various theories even overlap, let alone converse, in their attempt to theorize with and through Stevens? If these questions - and others along those lines - ever crossed your mind albeit fleetingly, then Wallace Stevens in Theory is the book you need. A definitive guide into Stevens's poetry of the mind, these essays by leading scholars in the fields of Stevens scholarship, literature and philosophy will offer both a luminous retrospective analysis of how, when and why Stevens's poems became a meeting point for thinkers across disciplines and a wealth of refreshing explorations for rethinking the relationship between Stevens, poetry and thought."" Juliette Utard, Associate Professor of American Literature at Universit� Paris-Sorbonne ""These high-wattage essays illuminate the splendid multidimensionality of Stevens's poetry. Their brilliant and subtle readings are informed by phenomenological, deconstructive, affective, ecological, queer, historical, dramatic, theological, and formal approaches. They variously theorize Stevens's poetry while rigorously expounding the nuances of his language, form, and style. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Stevens and poetic thinking, feeling, and making."" Jahan Ramazani, University Professor and Edgar F. Shannon Professor at the University of Virginia, author of Poetry in a Global Age ""The essays collected in Wallace Stevens in Theory explore a crucial dimension of the poet's work: what 'theory' means in Stevens, and, most importantly, how theoretical approaches can shed new light on the poems. Thomas Gould and Ian Tan draw together studies on a wide range of topics: theories of the reader; Stevens's relation to particular philosophers; theological questions; affect theory, gender and queer theory, as well as ecological concerns. This volume is a welcome and excellent addition to the critical literature on the poet."" Lisa Goldfarb, Professor at the Gallatin School of New York University, author of Unexpected Affinities: Modern American Poetry and Symbolist Poetics"

""Stevens in his poems here and there did his own theorizing, and after him others' theorizing him has been a scattered and loosely identified project - until now. Gould and Tan have done us a great service by arranging types of speculative thought in the Stevensian project and by convening a remarkable group of critics, scholars, and theorists. They re-read readership, explore modernist unworlding, redefine affect, return to belief and its lack, and seek to reconcile ribald irony and earnest philosophizing. Decades of theorizing Stevens have led to this book; its brilliant curation must be fully encountered."" Al Filreis, Kelly Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, author of Modernism from Right to Left: Wallace Stevens, the Thirties, & Literary Radicalism ""Why is Wallace Stevens quoted and referenced by so many thinkers outside the field of poetry? How does a particular body of work become a focal point for theoreticians across the humanities, and do these various theories even overlap, let alone converse, in their attempt to theorize with and through Stevens? If these questions - and others along those lines - ever crossed your mind albeit fleetingly, then Wallace Stevens in Theory is the book you need. A definitive guide into Stevens's poetry of the mind, these essays by leading scholars in the fields of Stevens scholarship, literature and philosophy will offer both a luminous retrospective analysis of how, when and why Stevens's poems became a meeting point for thinkers across disciplines and a wealth of refreshing explorations for rethinking the relationship between Stevens, poetry and thought."" Juliette Utard, Associate Professor of American Literature at Université Paris-Sorbonne ""These high-wattage essays illuminate the splendid multidimensionality of Stevens's poetry. Their brilliant and subtle readings are informed by phenomenological, deconstructive, affective, ecological, queer, historical, dramatic, theological, and formal approaches. They variously theorize Stevens's poetry while rigorously expounding the nuances of his language, form, and style. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Stevens and poetic thinking, feeling, and making."" Jahan Ramazani, University Professor and Edgar F. Shannon Professor at the University of Virginia, author of Poetry in a Global Age ""The essays collected in Wallace Stevens in Theory explore a crucial dimension of the poet's work: what 'theory' means in Stevens, and, most importantly, how theoretical approaches can shed new light on the poems. Thomas Gould and Ian Tan draw together studies on a wide range of topics: theories of the reader; Stevens's relation to particular philosophers; theological questions; affect theory, gender and queer theory, as well as ecological concerns. This volume is a welcome and excellent addition to the critical literature on the poet."" Lisa Goldfarb, Professor at the Gallatin School of New York University, author of Unexpected Affinities: Modern American Poetry and Symbolist Poetics

Author Information

Thomas Gould is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of East Anglia. Ian Tan is Assistant Professor of English at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University.

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