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Zoopoetics
Animals and the Making of Poetry
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2013
Summary
Zoopoetics assumes Aristotle was right. The general origin of poetry resides, in part, in the instinct to imitate. But it is an innovative imitation. An exploration of the oeuvres of Walt Whitman, E. E. Cummings, W. S. Merwin, and Brenda Hillman reveals the many places where an imitation of another species’ poiesis (Greek, makings) contributes to breakthroughs in poetic form. However, humans are not the only imitators in the animal kingdom. Other species, too, achieve breakthroughs in their makings through an attentiveness to the ways-of-being of other animals. For this reason, mimic octopi, elephants, beluga whales, and many other species join the exploration of what zoopoetics encompasses. Zoopoetics provides further traction for people interested in the possibilities when and where species meet.
Gestures are paramount to zoopoetics. Through the interplay of gestures, the human/animal/textual spheres merge making it possible to recognize how actual, biological animals impact the material makings of poetry. Moreover, as many species are makers, zoopoetics expands the poetic tradition to include nonhuman poiesis.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2013
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-8662-6
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-8663-3
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
159
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Abbreviations No access
Preface No access
Prelude: The Coat of a Horse No access
1 Zoopoetics: An Introduction No access
Interlude: Mimic Octopi No access
2 Walt Whitman and the Origin of Poetry No access
Interlude: Cats No access
3 "Whose poem is this?": E. E. Cummings' Zoopoetics No access
Interlude: Beluga Whales No access
4 "learning my steps": Zoopoetics and Mass Extinction in W. S. Merwin's Poetry No access
Interlude: Elephants No access
5 The Zoopoetics of a Multispecies Polis: Brenda Hillman's Practical Water No access
