American Comic Poetry: History, Techniques and Modern Masters

Description

Comic poetry is serious stuff, combining incongruity, satire and psychological effects to provide us a brief victory over reason--which could help us save ourselves, if not the world. This book champions the literary movement of comic poetry in the U.S., providing an historical context and exploring the work of such writers as Denise Duhamel, Campbell McGrath, Billy Collins, Thomas Lux and Tony Hoagland. Their techniques reveal how they make us laugh while addressing important social concerns. Cover Acknowledgments Table of Contents Foreword: The Best of All Medicines (Michael Hettich) Preface Introduction The Intellectual Approach The Functional Approach The Psychological Approach 1. A Brief History of American Comic Literature Colonial and Pre-Colonial American Comic Literature The Revolting Period Early Post-Colonial Era James Russell Lowell The Flowering of the Comic Voice Early Twentieth Century Dorothy Parker Ogden Nash Late Twentieth Century 2. The Long and Short of It Denise Duhamel, Comic Prose Poetry and the Three-Pronged Approach Campbell McGrath’s “Ode to Bureacrats” and the Three-Pronged Approach 3. Billy Collins and the Intellectual Approach 4. Thomas Lux and the Functional Approach 5. Tony Hoagland and the Psychological Approach Conclusion Bibliography Index