At its least confusing, Postmodern poetry refers to poetry written after the end of High Modernism; however, not all postmodern poetry is Postmodernist. In the postmodern era, the alienation and absurdity of Modernism still exists, but rather than attempting to fashion... [more]

At its least confusing, Postmodern poetry refers to poetry written after the end of High Modernism; however, not all postmodern poetry is Postmodernist. In the postmodern era, the alienation and absurdity of Modernism still exists, but rather than attempting to fashion a unified worldview from the fragmentation of modern existence, Postmodernist writers accept and even celebrate the indeterminacy of meaning and the decentered nature of existence. Postmodernist poetry reflects a culture which, according to such theorists as Jean Baudrillard, is composed of disparate experiences and a constant bombardment of images from the media. These images are devoid of depth, coherence, and originality. While Postmodernist art in general subverts the distinction between 'high' and 'low' culture, Postmodernist poetry plays at the level of diction. Poets such as Jane Miller, C.D.Wright, John Ashbery, and David Antin mix the high diction and figurative language of traditional poetry with the slang and low diction of common conversation. The poets of the now-defunct Language (or, L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E) poetry movement created poetry that called attention to words and letters as objects themselves. Leslie Scalapino, Charles Bernstein, Steve McCaffery, and others, organized these codes to make readers realize the intimate level at which media as influenced their ways of speaking and of seeing. Lines of Language poetry read like cultural codes, public and intimate observations sound at once familiar and alienating, and serious gestures seem like self-advertisement. [show less]