The Language Book

Andrews, Bruce (Charles Bernstein)

ISBN 10: 0809311062 / ISBN 13: 9780809311064

Published by Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.: Southern Illinois Univ Pr, 1984

About this Item

SIGNED on title page--signature only by Charles Bernstein. Covers rubbed and a small stain to fore edge pages--visible in photo. Interior fine and free of markings.

Seller Inventory # 4-231

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Language Book
• Publisher: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.: Southern Illinois Univ Pr
• Publication Date: 1984
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0809311062
• ISBN 13: 9780809311064
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

“Ok murky in alter all end, unpredictable day, with rainshine any degree night, the sun kin warm and hot. Enough stone or other jugs lineup of whatever is In Through Out That’s light as much as known Differences evanesce Like, where and/or what on the equator might be french or spanish Longitude and latitude, yep yep sure Americana.”—Larry Eigner, commentary on a selection from Ger­trude Stein’s Tender Buttons

This selection of essays and poetry from the first three volumes of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine dis­cusses a “spectrum of writing that places its attention primarily on language and ways of making meaning, that takes for granted neither vocabulary, grammar, process, shape, syntax, program, nor sub­ject matter.” (Bernstein and Andrews) The various writers shun labels, slogans, or catch-phrases; their exploration of the ways that meanings and values are re­vealed through the written word is in­tended to open the field of poetic activity, not close it.

The common thread of these essays is the multitude and scope of words’ refer­ential powers—denotative, connotative, and associational; and studying these powers is ultimately a social and political activity as well as an aesthetic one.

About the Author

Bruce Andrews’ essays are collected in Paradise & Method: Poetics & Praxis. Recent books of poetry and performance scores in collaboration with choreographer Sally Silvers include Ex Why Zee, Tizzy Boost, I Don’t Have Any Paper So Shut Up, and Give Em Enough Rope. Andrews teaches political science at Fordham University in New York City.

Charles Bernstein is the author of twenty collections of poetry, including Republics of Reality: Poems 1975-1995, Dark City, and Rough Trades, and two collections of essays, Content’s Dream: Essays 1975-1984 and A Poetics. He is David Gray Professor of Poetry and Letters at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he teaches in the Poetics Program.