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Purdue University

Poetry matters: Radical politics in postmodern American poetry

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>Directly or indirectly, poetry produced in the postmodern era is implicated in the politics of the time. Postmodern American poetry, then, is not reducible to a single poetic mode or to a specific set of stylistic features. In other words, a more comprehensive understanding of postmodern American poetry can be made by employing a flexible version of Raymond Williams’ notion of uneven development, a theory that insists on the synchronic existence of dominant, residual, and emergent cultural elements. As the stylistically and politically diverse work of the six poets—Susan Howe, Robert Grenier, Gary Snyder, A.R. Ammons, Sherman Alexie, and Kenneth Goldsmith—examined in this dissertation illustrates, postmodernism is a period in which multiple modes or versions of postmodern poetry exist and flourish.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level thesis:degree_level
Dissertation
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
English
Year
2016

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Padgett, Christopher J.
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Wendy Flory
  • Lance Duerfahrd
  • Daniel Morris
  • Arkady Plotnitsky

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:docs.lib.purdue.edu:open_access_dissertations-2199

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Purdue University
Base URL
docs.lib.purdue.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Padgett, Christopher J.. Poetry matters: Radical politics in postmodern American poetry. Dissertation thesis, 2016. https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/open_access_dissertations/984