Charles Olson changes objects: a reinterpretation of projective verse. Issue 7 (9th August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Marshall, Alan
• Is Part Of: Textual practice. Volume 33:Issue 7(2019)
• Page Start: 1219
• Page End: 1242
• Publication Date: 2019-08-09
• Subjects: Projective verse -- objectivism -- objectism -- object -- poem -- open -- thing -- world -- field -- between; Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Criticism -- Periodicals; Criticism, Textual -- Periodicals; Semiotics -- Periodicals; 801.95
• DOI: 10.1080/0950236X.2018.1496138
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-236X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This article argues that what Charles Olson called objectism was not the mere rehashing of objectivist poetics, as has sometimes been supposed, but involved the working out of a position that was diametrically opposed to objectivism, with respect both to objects in the world and objects in the poem. Central to objectism was what I call here the rule of interchangeability. It is this principle of interchangeability, I argue, that both grounds poetry's open form and frees up its dynamic relational energy. In the second half of the essay, I consider how these findings bear upon the poetry through a detailed close reading of some of the earlier Maximus poems.