Desire and Infinity in W. S. Merwin's Poetry

By: Dong Feng

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Synopsis: In the first monograph on W. S. Merwin to appear since his death in 2019, Feng Dong focuses on the dialectical movement of desire and infinity that ensouls the poet’s entire oeuvre. His analysis foregrounds what Merwin calls “the other side of despair,” the opposite of humans’ articulated personal and social agonies. Feng finds these presences in Merwin’s evocations of what lingers on the edge of constantly updated socio-symbolic frameworks: surreal encounters, spiritual ecstasies, and abyssal freedoms. By examining Merwin’s lifelong engagement with psychic fantasies, anonymous holiness, entities both natural and supernatural, and ghostly ancestors, Feng uncovers a precarious relation with the unarticulated, unrealized side of existence. Drawing on theories from Lacan, Žižek, Levinas, and Heidegger, Desire and Infinity in W. S. Merwin’s Poetry reads a metaphysical possibility into the poet’s work at the intersection between contemporary poetics, philosophy, and psychoanalysis.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
Book Size:: 222 Pages
ISBN-13:: 9780807176863
Publisher:: LSU Press
Date of Addition:: 05/25/23
Copyrighted By:: Louisiana State University Press
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Categories:: Nonfiction, Poetry, Literature and Fiction, Language Arts, Philosophy
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.