Title: Discrepant engagement
Description: Discrepant Engagement addresses work by a number of authors not normally grouped under a common rubric - black writers from the United States and the Caribbean and the so-called Black Mountain poets: Amiri Baraka, Clarence Major, Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Edward Kamau Brathwaite, Wilson Harris, and others. Nathaniel Mackey examines the ways in which the experimental aspects of their work advance a critique of the assumptions that underlie conventional perceptions and practice.

Mackey, arguing that the work of these writers engages the discrepancy between presumed norms and qualities of experience that such norms fail to accommodate, highlights their valorization of dissonance, divergence, and formal disruption. He advances a cross-cultural mix that is uncommon in studies of experimental writing, frequently bringing the works and ideas of the authors it addresses into dialogue and juxtaposition with one another.

And he shows that parallels, counterpoint, and relevance to one another exist among writers otherwise separated by ethnic and regional boundaries.
Subjects: African American authors, African Americans, African Americans in literature, American literature, Black authors, Blacks in literature, Caribbean literature (English), Experimental Literature, History and criticism, Intellectual life, Literature and society, West Indian literature (English), Caribbean literature, history and criticism, Literature, experimental, history and criticism, West indian literature, American literature, history and criticism, 20th century, American literature, african american authors, history and criticism, History
Places: English-speaking countries
Time periods: 20th century