Dictionary Poetics: Toward a Radical Lexicography - Paperback

by Craig Dworkin (Author)

The new ways of writing pioneered by the literary avant-garde invite new ways of reading commensurate with their modes of composition. Dictionary Poetics examines one of those modes: book-length poems, from Louis Zukofsky to Harryette Mullen, all structured by particular editions of specific dictionaries. By reading these poems in tandem with their source texts, Dworkin puts paid to the notion that even the most abstract and fragmentary avant-garde literature is nonsensical, meaningless, or impenetrable. When read from the right perspective, passages that at first appear to be discontinuous, irrational, or hopelessly cryptic suddenly appear logically consistent, rationally structured, and thematically coherent.

Following a methodology of "critical description," Dictionary Poetics maps the material surfaces of poems, tracing the networks of signifiers that undergird the more familiar representational schemes with which conventional readings have been traditionally concerned. In the process, this book demonstrates that new ways of reading can yield significant interpretive payoffs, open otherwise unavailable critical insights into the formal and semantic structures of a composition, and transform our understanding of literary texts at their most fundamental levels.

Back Jacket

"A captivating study: Dworkin's readings are not only immensely learned; they are, from chapter to chapter, revelatory. Radical Lexicography offers a remarkable set of keys for reading--and unlocking--recondite modern and contemporary poetry, and this knowledge is conveyed with a deep comprehension of the material and historical contexts of their production."--Josephine Park, University of Pennsylvania

"Radical Lexicography presents startlingly new ways of reading relatively well-known modernist texts. Dworkin's scholarship is exemplary: rigorous, enviably insightful, and frequently brilliant. Radical Lexicography is the book of a brilliant scholar working at the height of his powers. Dworkin's already legendary blend of scholarly thoroughness and poetic inventiveness reaches a new level in this study."--Jacob Edmond, author of Make It the Same: Poetry in the Age of Global Media

The new ways of writing pioneered by the literary avant-garde invite new ways of reading commensurate with their modes of composition. Dictionary Poetics examines one of those modes: book-length poems, from Louis Zukofsky to Harryette Mullen, all structured by particular editions of specific dictionaries. By reading these poems in tandem with their source texts, Dworkin puts paid to the notion that even the most abstract and fragmentary avant-garde literature is nonsensical, meaningless, or impenetrable. When read from the right perspective, passages that at first appear to be discontinuous, irrational, or hopelessly cryptic suddenly appear logically consistent, rationally structured, and thematically coherent.

Following a methodology of "critical description," Dictionary Poetics maps the material surfaces of poems, tracing the networks of signifiers that undergird the more familiar representational schemes with which conventional readings have been traditionally concerned. In the process, this book demonstrates that new ways of reading can yield significant interpretive payoffs, open otherwise unavailable critical insights into the formal and semantic structures of a composition, and transform our understanding of literary texts at their most fundamental levels.

Craig Dworkin is Professor of English at the University of Utah. He is the author of Reading the Illegible (Northwestern, 2003) and No Medium (MIT, 2013) and Founding Editor of the Eclipse Archive.

Author Biography

Craig Dworkin is Professor of English at the University of Utah. He is the author of Reading the Illegible (2003) and No Medium (2013) and is the editor or co-editor of six volumes of literary criticism and avant-garde poetry.