Anarchists in the Academy
Machines and Free Readers in Experimental Poetry
Description
Dani Spinosa takes up anarchism’s power as a cultural and artistic ideology, rather than as a political philosophy, with a persistent emphasis on the common. She demonstrates how postanarchism offers a useful theoretical context for poetry that is not explicitly political—specifically for the contemporary experimental poem with its characteristic challenges to subjectivity, representation, authorial power, and conventional constructions of the reader-text relationship. Her case studies of sixteen texts make a bold move toward politicizing readers and imbuing literary theory with an activist praxis—a sharp hope. This is a provocative volume for those interested in contemporary poetics, experimental literatures, and the digital humanities.
Case Studies
Jim Andrews
Christian Bök
Mez Breeze
John Cage
Andy Campbell
Robert Duncan
Kenneth Goldsmith
Susan Howe
Jackson Mac Low
Erín Moure [Erin Mouré]
Harryette Mullen
bpNichol
Vanessa Place
Juliana Spahr
Brian Kim Stefans
W. Mark Sutherland
Darren Wershler
Awards
- Short-listed, Book Design of the Year | Alberta Book Publishing Awards, Book Publishers Association of Alberta 2019
Reviews
"Anarchists in the Academy is required reading for anyone in the field of contemporary and experimental poetry and the digital humanities."
- Weldon Hunter
“Dani Spinosa makes compelling arguments for a post-anarchist literary theory that sheds light on politicized reading practices fostered by both innovative print-based and digital poets. … Anarchists in the Academy reveals that the effort to find new ways of apprehending electronic literature, machine writing, and reader engagement is a fertile endeavour that offers rich rewards, and this book will certainly be an indispensable resource for scholars interested in the politics of reading in an ever-expanding digital culture."
- Orchid Tierney