ABOUT THIS BOOK

Dissonant Voices uncovers the interracial collaboration at the heart of the postwar avant-garde. While previous studies have explored the writings of individual authors and groups, this work is among the first to trace the cross-cultural debate that inspired and energized midcentury literature in America and beyond. By reading a range of poets in the full context of the friendships and romantic relationships that animated their writing, this study offers new perspectives on key textual moments in the foundation and development of postmodern literature in the U.S. Ultimately, these readings aim to integrate our understanding of New American Poetry, the Black Arts Movement, and the various contemporary approaches to poetry and poetics that have been inspired by their examples.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Joseph Pizza is associate professor of English at Belmont Abbey College. He lives in Cornelius, North Carolina.

REVIEWS

“Dissonant Voices takes on a fascinating, understudied topic: the role played by jazz and interracial dialogue in the formation of postwar ‘New American Poetry.’ Pizza’s exciting book breaks new ground and opens fertile territory for the study of both American poetry and the deep influence of jazz on American literature and culture.”—Andrew Epstein, author, The Cambridge Introduction to American Poetry since 1945

“Back in my student days, I read the minutes of a Black Mountain College meeting that discussed admitting African American students in a state that was segregated by law. I recognized the importance of that set of minutes, and have been awaiting the arrival of a scholar who would look into this history more closely. Joseph Pizza is the first to do this so thoroughly.”—Aldon L. Nielsen, author, The Inside Songs of Amiri Baraka

“Poetics of Cognition is that rare breed of book that can bring together two modes of thought as different as experimental poetics and cognitive science, and supercharge both. No mind other than that of Jessica Lewis Luck could have seen these connections and written them into existence—an absolute bliss.”—Jan Lauwereyns, Kyushu University

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface: Integrating Black Mountain

Introduction. Dissonant Voices: Race, Jazz, and the New American Poetics of Breath

Chapter One. Form Is Never More Than an Extension of Bird: Projective Verse as Jazz Poetic

Chapter Two. Outside Boston: Stephen Jonas in the Poetry of John Wieners and Jack Spicer

Chapter Three. Howling Parker: Jazz, Race, and Beat Performance

Chapter Four. Broadening the Voice: Amiri Baraka among the Hipsters

Chapter Five. Spitting Fire: The Black Arts Movement and the New American Poetry

Conclusion: Out and Gone

Notes

Works Cited

Index

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