Gender and the poetics of excess
Subtitle: moments of brocade
By: Karen Jackson Ford.
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 1997
Place of publication: Jackson, Miss
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: American poetry -- Women authors -- History and criticism.; Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century.; Experimental poetry, American -- History and criticism.; American poetry -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Authorship -- Sex differences.; Literary form.
Description: The argument posed in this analysis is that the poetic excesses of several major female poets, excesses that have been typically regarded as flaws in their work, are strategies for escaping the inhibiting and sometimes inimical conventions too often imposed on women writers.

The forms of excess vary with each poet, but by conceiving of poetic excess in relation to literary decorum, this study establishes a shared motivation for such a strategy. Literary decorum is one instrument a culture employs to constrain its writers. Perhaps it is the most effective because it is the least definable.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [253]-263) and index.