THE AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL EFFECT: EARLY MODER

American poetry after 1960 famously took on a new intimacy and freshness of tone. Often called “confessional,” this poetry often does not actually express the kind of guilty self-revelation such a term implies. As the critic David Kalstone put it, “American poetry of this period became increasingly available to autobiographical energies of all sorts, not simply to writing which was desperate and on the edge.” This course examines some of that poetry, and its non-confessional use of an autobiographical “I.” We will explore how this poetry, far from representing a rejection of tradition, drew on early modern work to imbue seemingly modern autobiographical effects with new quickness and life.