Ben Hickman

A study of how we should read one of America's most important poets Ben Hickman argues that we must attend to Ashbery's radical conception of reading if we are to understand the originality of his writing. His study focuses on Ashbery's reading of English poets, including Andrew Marvell, John Donne, William Wordsworth, John Clare, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden, and examines Ashbery's writing in terms of an 'aesthetic of inattention'. Hickman critiques the Americanisation of Ashbery's work as well as common assumptions about his Romanticism, his avant-garde Modernism and his engagement with the historical present. He demonstrates that Ashbery's generosity as a writer is closely tied to his generosity, inattention and situatedness as a reader. Key Features * Original new reading of Ashbery's affinities with English poetry and his engagement with different poets and traditions * Draws on research undertaken at the Houghton archive, where Ashbery's papers are held * Innovative approach will help reshape the critical apparatus for appreciating contemporary poetry as a whole

Crisis and the US Avant-Garde charts the energies and tensions of avant-garde poetics and vanguard politics. Crisis and the US Avant-Garde examines the politics of poetry through the lens of crisis. A timely commentary on the role poetic culture might play in political struggle going forward into our own various contemporary crises, the book connects major twentieth-century poets and movements, including Allen Ginsberg, Amiri Baraka and Language Poetry, with their various moments of political upheaval. Reading poems as attempted interventions in ‘turning-points’ or ‘moments of decision’ within American culture, Crisis and the US Avant-Garde looks at how poetry seeks to go beyond poetic language, and investigates how experimental American poetry has attempted to responds to imperialism, war, class conflict and capitalism itself. Key features: Reassesses the US avant-garde’s relation to political events Explains how we might talk about a ‘context’ for avant-garde art Provides detailed readings of major poets, including Louis Zukofsky, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, George Oppen, Amiri Baraka and others Key reference point for experimental cultural politics today Ben Hickman is the author of John Ashbery and English Poetry (Edinburgh, 2012) and has published numerous essays on the New York School, the New American Poetry, John Clare and others. He studied at University College, London and currently teaches at the University of Kent.

This book examines labour in the age of US hegemony through the art that has grappled with it; and, vice versa, developments in American culture as they have been shaped by work’s transformations over the last century. Describing the complex relations between cultural forms and the work practices, Art, Labour and American Life explores everything from Fordism to feminization, from whitecollar ascendency to zero hours precarity, as these things have manifested in painting, performance art, poetry, fiction, philosophy and music. Labour, all but invisible in cultural histories of the period, despite the fact most Americans have spent most of their lives doing it, here receives an urgent re-emphasis, as we witness work’s radical redefinition across the world.

This book examines labour in the age of US hegemony through the art that has grappled with it; and, vice versa, developments in American culture as they have been shaped by work’s transformations over the last century. Describing the complex relations between cultural forms and the work practices, Art, Labour and American Life explores everything from Fordism to feminization, from whitecollar ascendency to zero hours precarity, as these things have manifested in painting, performance art, poetry, fiction, philosophy and music. Labour, all but invisible in cultural histories of the period, despite the fact most Americans have spent most of their lives doing it, here receives an urgent re-emphasis, as we witness work’s radical redefinition across the world.

Schools play a vital role in safeguarding children and young people, yet there has been little research into how schools identify and respond to child protection concerns, and their engagement with local authority children’s services. This book highlights the findings of a major ESRC-funded study on the child protection role played by schools, their decision-making processes and involvement in inter-agency working. Crucial reading for academics, practitioners and managers in children’s social care and education, it evaluates the impact of recent policy developments, including the Academies and Free Schools programme, as well as the restructuring of local authority children’s services.

Schools play a vital role in safeguarding children and young people, yet there has been little research into how schools identify and respond to child protection concerns, and their engagement with local authority children’s services. This book highlights the findings of a major ESRC-funded study on the child protection role played by schools, their decision-making processes and involvement in inter-agency working. Crucial reading for academics, practitioners and managers in children’s social care and education, it evaluates the impact of recent policy developments, including the Academies and Free Schools programme, as well as the restructuring of local authority children’s services.

Presents a major revaluation of experimental poetry's social function in the US. In 1934, the Marxist and Modernist poet Louis Zukofsky was labelled a 'detached recorder of isolated events' by his communist contemporaries, a writer who 'identifies life with capitalism, and so assumes that the world is merely a wasteland'. Crisis and the US Avant Garde charts the trajectory of this tension between avant garde poetics and vanguard politics since the twin legacies of Modernism and the Great Depression. The book's radical reappraisal of twentieth century experimental poetry in the US reads major figures including Charles Olson, Denise Levertov and Amiri Baraka within a new approach to traditional notions of historical context, exploring the ways in which poetry can properly be said to respond to political crises. Opposing the current critical focus on the politics of aesthetic form, Hickman explores the direct and practical relationships avant garde poets have had with power politics, social organization and cultural movements, providing a timely commentary on the role poetic culture might play in political struggle going forward into our own various contemporary crises. Reassesses the US avant garde's relation to political events; explains how we might talk about a 'context' for avant garde art; provides detailed readings of major poets, including Louis Zukofsky, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov, George Oppen, Amiri Baraka and others and Key reference point for experimental cultural politics today.