Journal Article

Rescaling Robert Kroetsch: A Reading across Communities, Borders, and Practices

Bertacco, Simona

2019

Overview

[...]while he figured as the general editor, Kroetsch turned to his colleagues in Canada for the actual editorial work: [...]if postmodernism identified to Kroetsch and Spanos a global revolutionary movement set to debunk any form of dominant thinking, that \"desperate risking\" is indeed what Kroetsch would do in his own writing. 2.Postmodern Practices: From the Prairies to the West Coast Kroetsch's poetics and his cultural affiliations are of a piece. Among the techniques used to break away from formal constrictions are the inclusion, explicit or implicit, of other texts; allusion to the socio-cultural contexts outside the book; use of vernacular idiom; deliberate intrusion of nonsense into the poem; abundance of visual play with language, of puns, or hyperbolic and digressive narrative strategies. [...]Kroetschs poetic language, growing out of an oblique relation to cultural and literary authorities, works through absence and resistance while it attempts a new language. From the moment he ventures into FIELD COMPOSITION-puts himself in the open- he can go by no track other than the one the poem under hand declares, for itself. [...]he has to behave, and be, instant by instant, aware of some several forces just now beginning to be examined.

• Publisher: The University of British Columbia - Canadian Literature,The University of British Columbia/Canadian Literature
• Subject: 20th century / Allusion / American literature / American postmodern literature / Anglophones / Authorship / Canadian literature / Canadian poetry / Cold War / Colloquial language / Criticism and interpretation / Critics / Culture / Epic literature / Essays / European literature / Exegesis & hermeneutics / Ginsberg, Allen (1926-1997) / Influence / Kroetsch, Robert / Kroetsch, Robert (1927-2011) / Literary criticism / Literary devices / Literary influences / Literary translation / Magical realism / Narrative structure / Olson, Charles (1910-1970) / Personal profiles / Poetics / Poetry / Poets / Postmodern literature / Postmodernism / Readers / Reading / Sociocultural factors / Studies / Universities and colleges / Word play / Works / Writers / Writing