No One to Meet

Raphael Falco

ISBN 10: 0817321411 / ISBN 13: 9780817321413

Published by The University of Alabama Press, US, 2022

About this Item

The literary establishment tends to regard Bob Dylan as an intriguing, if baffling, outsider. That changed overnight when Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, challenging us to think of him as an integral part of our national and international literary heritage. No One to Meet: Imitation and Originality in the Songs of Bob Dylan places Dylan the artist within a long tradition of literary production and offers an innovative way of understanding his unique, and often controversial, methods of composition. In lucid prose, Raphael Falco demonstrates the similarity between what Renaissance writers called imitatio and the way Dylan borrows, digests, and transforms traditional songs. Although Dylan's lyrical postures might suggest a post-Romantic, "avant-garde" consciousness, No One to Meet shows that Dylan's creative process borrows from and creatively expands the methods used by classical and Renaissance authors. Drawing on numerous examples, including Dylan's previously unseen manuscript excerpts and archival materials, Raphael Falco illuminates how the ancient process of poetic imitation, handed down from Greco-Roman antiquity, allows us to make sense of Dylan's musical and lyrical technique. By placing Dylan firmly in the context of an age-old poetic practice, No One to Meet deepens our appreciation of Dylan's songs and allows us to celebrate him as what he truly is: a great writer.

Seller Inventory # LU-9780817321413

Bibliographic Details

• Title: No One to Meet
• Publisher: The University of Alabama Press, US
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817321411
• ISBN 13: 9780817321413
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 255 grams

About this title

Synopsis

WINNER OF THE ELIZABETH AGEE PRIZE IN AMERICAN LITERATURE

A groundbreaking appreciation of Dylan as a literary practitioner.

The literary establishment tends to regard Bob Dylan as an intriguing, if baffling, outsider. That changed overnight when Dylan was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature, challenging us to think of him as an integral part of our national and international literary heritage. No One to Meet: Imitation and Originality in the Songs of Bob Dylan places Dylan the artist within a long tradition of literary production and offers an innovative way to understand his unique and often controversial methods of composition.

Dylan expert Raphael Falco traces the similarities between the way Dylan borrows, digests, and transforms traditional songs and what Renaissance writers called imitatio. Although Dylan’s lyrical postures may suggest an avant-garde consciousness, No One to Meet shows that Dylan’s creative process creatively expands methods used by classical and Renaissance authors.

Drawing on numerous examples, including Dylan’s previously unseen manuscript excerpts and archival materials, Raphael Falco illuminates how the ancient process of poetic imitation, handed down from Greco-Roman antiquity, allows us to make sense of Dylan’s musical and lyrical technique. By placing Dylan firmly in the context of an age-old poetic practice, No One to Meet deepens our appreciation of Dylan’s songs and allows us to celebrate him as what he truly is: a great writer.
 

About the Author

Raphael Falco is professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a coeditor of The Dylan Review. He is author of Cultural Genealogy: An Essay on Early Modern Myth, Charisma and Myth and Charismatic Authority in Early Modern English Tragedy.