Democracy in Contemporary U.S. Women’s Poetry

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Introduction

   • Nicky Marsh

   Pages 1-12

3. Paper Money and Tender Acts: Feminism and Democracy

   • Nicky Marsh

   Pages 13-38

4. The Poetics of Privacy: Writing the Lyric Self

   • Nicky Marsh

   Pages 39-71

5. Against the Outside: Language Poetry as a Counter-Public

   • Nicky Marsh

   Pages 73-100

6. Go Grrrl: Democracy and Counterculture

   • Nicky Marsh

   Pages 101-129

7. Romantic Materialism and Emerging Poets

   • Nicky Marsh

   Pages 131-153

8. Back Matter

   Pages 155-225

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This book reads the work of contemporary women poets against recent debates in third wave feminism and democratic theory in exploring the range of ways in which women poets have interrogated the complexities of being public in contemporary U.S culture.

• culture
• democracy
• lyric
• poetics
• poetry
• Romanticism
• women

'This book offers a set of ingenious readings of an unusual grouping of women poets, most of whom have been insufficiently studied and are now set in juxtaposition with each other in highly productive and illuminating ways. Comparison of Hejinian and Scalapino along the axis of public/private and spatiality/personhood, which underlies debates about citizenship is a juxtaposition that has an opportunity to become a foundational reading in secondary literature on women language poets. The careful readings of Spahr and Jarnot were quite moving and insightful. A strong and welcome contribution to the field.' - Maria Damon, University of Minnesota

NICKY MARSH works in English at the University of Southampton and is the Director of Southampton's Centre for Contemporary Writing, UK.

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