Friday, September 23, 2016

Robert Sheppard: The Meaning of Form... in the Innovative Sonnet


Chapter 3.  Convention and Constraint: Form in the Innovative Sonnet Sequence

Analysing both the history of the sonnet and its transformation in contemporary innovative practice (as exemplified by the anthology The Reality Street Book of Sonnets (2008)) the works of Ted Berrigan, Jeff Hilson, Philip Terry, Geraldine Monk and Sophie Robinson are critiqued in detail. Questions of form (as sonnet frame) are raised alongside issues of the historical form and its relation to politics and gender. An examination of the breadth of experiment evinced in contemporary practice, in relation to the work of New York poetics, the Oulipo group, and quasi-concrete poetry experiments in a variety of visual forms, completes the analysis.  

See about the sonnets I write here. See here for the central thesis of the book.


For those who can buy the book, or order it for libraries, here are the places