Books by Bob Perelman

Offers insights into the history of the movement and discusses the political and theoretical implications of the writing. This book providesreadings of work by Lyn Hejinian, Ron Silliman, and Charles Bernstein, among many others, and compares it to a wide range of other contemporary and modern American poetry.

A paradox: Ezra Pound, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, and Louis Zukofsky all wrote their central works to be 'masterpieces'. And yet these writings are so hard to read. This work shows how the inaccessibility of their writing reveals the conflict between the goals of social relevance and literary innovation.