Reading Uncreative Writing: Conceptualism, Expression, and the Lyric

Description

This book examines Uncreative Writing—the catch-all term to describe Neo-Conceptualism, Flarf and related avant-garde movements in contemporary North American poetry—against a decade of controversy. David Kaufman analyzes texts by Kenneth Goldsmith, Vanessa Place, Robert Fitterman, Ara Shirinyan, Craig Dworkin, Dan Farrell and Katie Degentesh to demonstrate that Uncreative Writing is not a revolutionary break from lyric tradition as its proponents claim. Nor is it a racist, reactionary capitulation to neo-liberalism as its detractors argue. Rather, this monograph shows that Uncreative Writing’s real innovations and weaknesses become clearest when read in the context of the very lyric that it claims to have left behind. Front Matter ....Pages i-vii Introduction (David Kaufmann)....Pages 1-12 The Author as Collector: Kenneth Goldsmith’s Aestheticism (David Kaufmann)....Pages 13-38 “Isn’t It Just Bullshit?”: From Uncreative Writing to Warhol and Back (David Kaufmann)....Pages 39-70 Writing While White: Uncreative Writing, Racism and Disavowal (David Kaufmann)....Pages 71-97 For Expression: Uncreative Writing, Affect and Critique (David Kaufmann)....Pages 99-124 Approaching the Trans-subjective: How to Do Things with the MMPI (David Kaufmann)....Pages 125-160 Back Matter ....Pages 161-169