Barrett Watten
Home Page

Department of English
Wayne State University

A vital contribution to the collective memory of the poetry of that period. . . . The relationship of the individual to the society and its intermediate institutions, such as the Grand Piano readings, is relevant to any thoughtful analysis of the place of poetry writing and production today. —James Sherry, Jacket 34
The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics (cover art by Iakov Chernikhov, 1931)
The collective autobiographers are less interested in revising the past and more interested in using the narratives of their history to further contextualize the complex poetics and communal history of that poetics for the future. . . to nurture an arena of possibilities where ideas can be exchanged. —Rob Fitterman, “Futuring The Grand Piano”
Plasma/Parallèles/"X", French translation by Martin Richet from Le Quartanier (Montreal, P.Q.); Progress/Under Erasure (cover photo: author and son, California, 1985)
The Grand Piano is itself a veering off and an investigation and a playing or experimenting with the materials of language, history, textuality, and temporality, the personal and political, poetry and community . . . . There is an abundance to linger over in The Grand Piano even as and perhaps because of the large gaps and contradictions. —Robin Tremblay-McGaw, How2
The Grand Piano, parts 1 and 2

Current posts:

è   Archive of posts: time-based writings on poetics, media, politics, and culture, September 2004 to the present

Recent books:

The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics

Wesleyan University Press, 2003; publicity/order here

Recipient of the 2004 René Wellek Prize of the American Comparative Literature Association

è   Information on the award

è   Review in American Literature (December 2005) by Bob Perelman

The Grand Piano, part 1 (November 2006); part 2 (January 2007); part 3 (April 2007); part 4 (July 2007); part 5 (November 2007); part 6 (April 2007)

An Experiment in Collective Autobiography, San Francisco, 1975–1980, by Rae Armantrout, Steve Benson, Carla Harryman, Lyn Hejinian, Tom Mandel, Ted Pearson, Bob Perelman, Kit Robinson, Ron Silliman, and Barrett Watten

Serial publication by Mode A/This Press began in November 2006; ten volumes are scheduled to appear at three-month intervals

è   Visit The Grand Piano website here

è   Links to reviews and comments here

è   Subscription/order flyer (color or b&w)

Plasma/Parallèles/“X”
Traduit de l’anglais (Etats-Unis) par Martin Richet

Montréal, P.Q.: Le Quartanier, 2007; French translation of Plasma/Parallels/“X” (Tuumba Press, 1979)

è   Order from Le Quartanier

Progress/Under Erasure

Green Integer, 2005; publicity/order here; flyer here

è   Review of original publication of Progress by Ron Silliman (1985)

è   Facsimile of “Progress” 1 and 2 by Jackson Mac Low (1986)

Publications and presentations:

“Berlin Wall/Buchenwald”

In /nor 2 (New Ohio Review, ed. Catherine Taylor; 2007)

è   Online here    Original version here

“Correlation of Paterson, book 1”

In Antennae 9 (ed. Jesse Seldess; Karlsruhe, Ger., 2007)

è   Original online excerpt here

“Modernism at the Crossroads: Types of Negative Example”

In Modernism, ed. Vivian Liska and Astradur Eysteinsson (Amsterdam: John Benjamins/International Comparative Literature Association, 2007)

è   Ordering information here

“Radical Particularity, Critical Regionalism, and the Resistance to Globalization”

Presented at a panel on “Marxism, Poetics, and Spatial Formation,” Modernist Studies Association, Long Beach, Calif., November 2007

è   Text as presented here

“The Expanded Object of the Poetic Field; or, What Is a Poet/Critic?”

Keynote address, Poetry and Public Language, University of Plymouth, U.K., March 2007; in Poetry and Public Language, ed. Tony Lopez and Anthony Caleshu (Exeter, U.K.: Shearsman Press, 2007)

è   Publicity flyer/ordering information here

“Translating Authority: Adorno’s Cultural Work in The Authoritarian Personality”

Lecture presented at the Humanities Center Winter Symposium, Wayne State University, March 2007; Universität Frankfurt, June 2006; Authorship and the Turn to Language, Universität Tübingen, December 2005

“On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Negativity for Life”

Keynote address, Undergraduate Conference, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, March 2007; Department of English, University of Minnesota, February 2007; The Slought Foundation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, November 2006

“Poetics in the Expanded Field: Textual, Visual, Digital . . .”

In New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts, and Theories, ed. Adalaide Morris and Thomas Swiss (MIT Press, 2006);

è   Publicity flyer/order form here

“Foucault Reads Acker and Rewrites the History of the Novel”

In Lust for Life: On the Writings of Kathy Acker, ed. Carla Harryman, Avital Ronnel, and Amy Scholder (Verso, 2006)

è   Publicity flyer/order form here

è   Review in Los Angeles City Beat

“Affects Break into Simulcast: Toward a Poetics of Critical Intervention”

Review of Ugly Feelings, by Sianne Ngai; In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition, by Fred Moten; and Simulcast: Four Experiments in Criticism, by Ben Friedlander, Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies (October 2006)

“Franco/Luambo Makiadi’s Universalism”

Lecture presented at the Humanities Center, Wayne State University, November 2006; at a conference on Diasporic Avant-Gardes: Experimental Poetics and Cultural Dislocation, University of California, Irvine, November 2004

“Against Ekphrasis”

Lecture sponsored by the Department of English, Writers’ Workshop, and Intermedia Studies Program, University of Iowa, October 2006

“Transposing the Limits of Organic Form: Language Writing and Anthony Braxton”

Presented at a conference on Current Free Practices in Music and Poetry, New York University, March 2006

è   Original online version here

“Global Conceptualism: Conceptual Art, Universals, the Avant-Garde”

Presented at American Comparative Literature Association Conference, Pennsylvania State University, March 2005

“Cold War Universals and the Poetics of Displacement”

Presented at a conference on Post-Soviet Culture and Theory, Duke University, March 2005

è   All books          è   All articles

Course offerings:

Winter 2008

English 5460, Topics in 20th-Century American Literature:
"Transnational Modernisms"

English 3140, Survey of American Literature: "Constructions
of American Literature, Progressive Era to Globalization"

è   Past syllabi       è   All courses

Readings and events:

Ron Silliman & Tracie Morris
Reading/Performance at WSU

3:00–5:00 PM, 26 October 2007, Welcome Center Auditorium
Warren and Woodward Avenues, Wayne State University

Preceded by an informal talk by Ron Silliman
on the politics and poetics of Silliman’s Blog
1:00–2:30, English Department Conference Room 10304
5057 Woodward Avenue, Wayne State University

è   Press release here    è   Flyer here

Polis Is This: Charles Olson and the Persistence of Place
a screening of the film by Henry Ferrini

Screening and discussion with the filmmaker
3:00–5:00 PM, 19 October 2007, Welcome Center Auditorium
Warren and Woodward Avenues, Wayne State University

è   Press release here    è   Flyer here

Barrett Watten & Andrew Levy
at the Bowery Poetry Club

4:00–6:00 PM, 13 October 2007
308 Bowery, New York

è   Calendar here    è   MP3 [to come]

University of Minnesota lecture and reading February 9–10

“On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Negativity for Life”
3:00–4:30 PM, 9 February 2007, Department of English
207A Lind Hall, UM’s East Bank, University of Minnesota

Slought Foundation talk November 10

6:30–8-00 PM, 10 November 2006, The Slought Foundation
4017 Walnut Street, Philadelphia; info here

Temple University reading November 9

Department of English, Temple University
7:00 PM, 9 November 2006

Wayne State University Humanities Center talk October 31

“Franco Luambo Makiadi’s Universalism”
12:30 PM, 31 October 2006, 2339 F/AB; flyer here

è   Archive of events: lectures, readings, conferences, panels, and hosted programs at Wayne State University 

Conferences and programs:

Modernist Studies Association
1–4 November 2007, The Westin, Long Beach

“Radical Particularity, Critical Regionalism, and the Resistance to Globalization”; in “Marxism, Poetics, and Spatial Formation,” organized by Barrett Watten (Wayne SU) and Ruth Jennison (U Massachusetts); Michael Davidson (UCSD), chair; with Ruth Jennison, Carrie Noland (UC Irvine), and Barrett Watten

Thursday, 4:00–5:30, Centennial Ballroom, Salon D

è   Conference program here   

American Comparative Literature Association

“Radical Particularity and the Resistance to Globalization”
In “A New Global Poetics?,” organized by Jacob Edmunds
19–22 April 2007; Puebla, Mexico; info t/k

Poetry and Public Language, University of Plymouth

Keynote address: “The Field of Poetics; or, What Is a Poet/Critic?”
Department of English, University of Plymouth, U.K.
30 March–1 April 2007; info t/k

Undergraduate Conference, University of Windsor

Keynote address: “On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Negativity for Life”
University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada
24 March 2007; info t/k

WSU Humanities Center Winter Symposium

“Translating Authority: Adorno’s Cultural Work in The Authoritarian Personality”
23 March 2007; info t/k

Modern Language Association, Philadelphia

“Poetics and Cultural Studies: Engaging the Debate”: Barrett Watten, presiding, with Ruth Jennison (U Massachusetts), Eric Keenaghan (SUNY Albany), Jeffrey Nealon (Penn State U), and Tyrone Williams (Xavier U); session proposal here

“The F Scale”: presentation for a panel on “Processing Pound,” with Ben Friedlander (U Maine), Rachel Blau DuPlessis (Temple U) and Jennifer Scappetone (Chicago)

“Twentieth-Century American Poet’s Theater”: Heidi R. Bean, U Iowa, presiding, with Sarah T. Bay-Cheng, SUNY Buffalo; Carla Harryman, Wayne State U; and Laura Hinton, CUNY

Modernist Studies Association, Tulsa

“New Directions in Poetics,” a panel with Maria Damon (U Minnesota), George Hartley (Ohio U), Joel Tyler Nickels (UC Berkeley), and Sarah Ruddy (Wayne State U)

20 October 2006, Doubletree Hotel, Tulsa; sponsored by the National Poetry Foundation and Paideuma
è   Program    

Current Free Practices in Music and Poetry

A one-day colloquium of new music composers, musicologists, poets, and literary critics

25 March 2006, Department of Music, New York University

è   Program     è   Paper presented

Authorship and the Turn to Language

An international conference on language-centered authorship and postmodern culture

1–4 December 2005, Universität Tübingen, Germany

è   Program     è   Brochure

Robert Creeley in Memory

Tributes by Carla Harryman, Kathryne Lindberg, Glen Mannisto, Ken Mikolowski, Ted Pearson, George Tysh, and Barrett Watten

20 April 2005, Wayne State University

è   Program   

Post-Soviet Culture + Theory

American and Russian scholars and critics discussing the literature, cinema, visual art, and intellectual history of post-Soviet Russia

25-26 February 2005, Institute for Critical Theory, Duke University

è   Program   

Diasporic Avant-Gardes: Experimental Poetics and Cultural Displacement

An international conference on the work of diasporic and avant-garde poets from North America, Mexico, France, the U.K., and the Caribbean

19-20 November 2004, University of California, Irvine

è   Program     è   Flyer

Poetries of the 1940s, American and International

23–27 June 2004, University of Maine, Orono

è   Program     è   “Tribute to Zukofsky”

Links:

[t/k]