In this ambitious study of contemporary poetics, Joe W. Moffett deciphers the twentieth-century long poem. He focuses on issues like postcolonialism, nation, modernism, and postmodernism, and conceptualizes his theories by using what he calls "originiary moments", historical periods or specific events from which a poet contends our culture descends.

In this first book-length study of Wright's extensive body of work, Joe Moffett offers readers an introduction to the books and themes that have defined the poet's illustrious career.

Presenting work from scholars of various ranks and locations-including Canada, Romania, Taiwan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, the UK, and the USA-this volume offers critical perspectives on what is often considered the most important poem of literary modernism: T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land." The essays explore such topics as Eliot's use of sources, his poem's form, his influences, and his alleged misogyny. Building off contemporary work on Eliot and his poem, these essays illustrate the continued importance of "The Waste Land" in our understanding of the last century. This book should be of interest...

Written from a literary critic's perspective, Mysticism in Postmodernist Long Poems borrows insights from Religious Studies and critical theory to examine the role of spirituality in contemporary poetry, specifically the genre of the long poem. Descending from Whitman's Song of Myself, the long poem is often considered the American twentieth-century equivalent of the epic poem, but unlike the epic, it carries few generic expectations aside from the fact that it simply must be long. This makes the form particularly pliable as a tool for spiritual inquiry. The period following World War II is...