Tuesday
Apr012008
Conceptual Poetry Conceptual Interview
Tuesday 1 April, 2008
Marjorie Perloff:
'Kenneth Goldsmith and Christian Bök largely equate the conceptual with the “uncreative,” the unoriginal: they talk of the use of “stolen texts, random words, forced rules, boring ideas,” and begin with the premise that in the information age, “language as material” can be seen as “junk, detritus,” to be reframed and recharged. Charles Bernstein, on the other hand, defines conceptual poetry as “poetry pregnant with thought”—a definition Craig Dworkin, whose “Anthology of Conceptual Writing” on ubuweb.com first gave me the idea for this project, would seem to endorse since he talks there of an “anti-expressivist” poetry”—a “poetry of intellect.” And Susan Howe declares with nice irony, “I don’t know what conceptual poetry is. Maybe I will find the answer in Tucson."'
Link
'Kenneth Goldsmith and Christian Bök largely equate the conceptual with the “uncreative,” the unoriginal: they talk of the use of “stolen texts, random words, forced rules, boring ideas,” and begin with the premise that in the information age, “language as material” can be seen as “junk, detritus,” to be reframed and recharged. Charles Bernstein, on the other hand, defines conceptual poetry as “poetry pregnant with thought”—a definition Craig Dworkin, whose “Anthology of Conceptual Writing” on ubuweb.com first gave me the idea for this project, would seem to endorse since he talks there of an “anti-expressivist” poetry”—a “poetry of intellect.” And Susan Howe declares with nice irony, “I don’t know what conceptual poetry is. Maybe I will find the answer in Tucson."'
Link
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