This book takes up the utopian desire for a perfect language of words that give direct expression to the real, known in Western thought as Cratylism, and its impact on the social visions and poetic projects of three of the most intellectually...
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This book takes up the utopian desire for a perfect language of words that give direct expression to the real, known in Western thought as Cratylism, and its impact on the social visions and poetic projects of three of the most intellectually ambitious of American writers: Walt Whitman, Laura (Riding) Jackson, and Charles Olson. This book takes up the utopian desire for a perfect language of words that give direct expression to the real, known in Western thought as Cratylism, and its impact on the social visions and poetic projects of three of the most intellectually ambitious of American writers: Walt Whitman, Laura (Riding) Jackson, and Charles Olson
Includes bibliographical references (p. [189]-202) and index
Electronic reproduction; Available via World Wide Web
Cover; Contents; List of Figures; Series Editor's Foreword; Preface; Abbreviations; 1 The True Forms of Things: Cratylism and American Poetry; 2 Substantial Words: Walt Whitman and the Power of Names; 3 The Linguistic Ultimate: Laura (Riding) Jackson and the Language of Truth; 4 A State Destroys a Noun: Charles Olson and Objectism; Coda: Language Poetry and Neo-Cratylism; Notes; Works Cited; Index