Poetry Matters: Neoliberalism, Affect, and the Posthuman in Twenty-First Century North American Feminist PoeticsForms of a World: Contemporary Poetry and the Making of Globalization

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Book Review| March 01 2021 Poetry Matters: Neoliberalism, Affect, and the Posthuman in Twenty-First Century North American Feminist PoeticsForms of a World: Contemporary Poetry and the Making of Globalization Poetry Matters: Neoliberalism, Affect, and the Posthuman in Twenty-First Century North American Feminist Poetics. By Milne, Heather. Iowa City: Univ. of Iowa Press. 2018. viii, 280 pp. Paper, $80.00; e-book, $80.00.Forms of a World: Contemporary Poetry and the Making of Globalization. By Hunter, Walt. New York: Fordham Univ. Press. 2019. vii, 190 pp. Cloth, $105.00; paper, $30.00; e-book, $29.99. Jeff Westover Jeff Westover Jeff Westover is a professor of literature in the English Department at Boise State University. In 2005 Choice identified his book, The Colonial Moment: Discoveries and Settlements in Modern American Poetry (2004), as an outstanding title. More recently, he has published essays on William Carlos Williams, Thylias Moss, Maxine Hong Kingston, H.D., W. S. Merwin, and Elizabeth Bishop. Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google American Literature (2021) 93 (1): 156–159. https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-8878602 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter Email Permissions Search Site Citation Jeff Westover; Poetry Matters: Neoliberalism, Affect, and the Posthuman in Twenty-First Century North American Feminist PoeticsForms of a World: Contemporary Poetry and the Making of Globalization. American Literature 1 March 2021; 93 (1): 156–159. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/00029831-8878602 Download citation file: Zotero Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter Books & JournalsAll JournalsAmerican Literature Search Advanced Search Two recent books on contemporary poetry address the impacts of neoliberalism and precarity. In Poetry Matters, Heather Milne focuses on feminism; in Forms of a World, Walt Hunter addresses globalism. Both scholars discuss works by various Anglophone poets, and their transnational approach situates the work of these writers in international contexts. Milne concentrates on American and Canadian women poets, while Hunter discusses English-language poetry from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. Neither book mentions neoconservatism or authoritarianism, but Milne does refer to neofascism when discussing Trump. For both critics, capitalism is paramount, destructive, and inescapable, although the poets they cover imagine better alternatives. Both books are clear and well organized, making them enjoyable to read.In Poetry Matters, Milne investigates poems by women “that are socially and materially situated yet not always referential”... Copyright © 2021 by Duke University Press2021 You do not currently have access to this content.