The Constructivist Moment. Barrett Watten

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      the constructivist moment

       the

      constructivist moment

       FROM MATERIAL TEXT TO CULTURAL POETICS

       BARRETT WATTEN

      Published by

      Wesleyan University Press,

      Middletown, CT 06459

      © 2003 by Barrett Watten

      All rights reserved

      Printed in United States of America

      5 4 3 2 1

      Library of Congress

      Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Watten, Barrett.

      The constructivist moment : from material text to cultural poetics /

      Barrett Watten.

       p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 0-8195-6609-8 (alk. paper)—ISBN 0-8195-6610-1

      (pbk. : alk. paper)

      1. American literature—20th century—History and criticism. 2. Avant-garde (Aesthetics)—United States—History—20th century. 3. Avant-garde (Aesthetics)—Soviet Union—History—20th century. 4. Russian literature—20th century—History and criticism. 5. Literature, Comparative—American and Russian. 6. Literature, Comparative—Russian and American. 7. American literature—Russian influences. 8. Constructivism (Russian literature) I. Title.

      PS159.R8W38 2003

      810.9′1—dc21 2003001153

       FOR ASA

       I see plans of a house in stages of construction. Workmen move across bare frames in open light. —”Paralleles”

       CONTENTS

       Acknowledgments

       Introduction: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics

       CHAPTER 1: New Meaning and Poetic Vocabulary: From Coleridge to Jackson Mac Low

       Poetic Vocabulary

       Coleridge’s Desynonymy

       Zukofsky’s Dictionary

       Mac Low’s Lexicons

       New Meaning

       CHAPTER 2: The Secret History of the Equal Sign: L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E between Discourse and Text

       Avant-Garde Paradox

       Postrevolutionary Poetics

       Legend’s Text

       Multiauthors (M)

       Multiauthors (F)

       Multiauthors and the Listserv

       CHAPTER 3: The Bride of the Assembly Line: Radical Poetics in Construction

       The Descent

       Cultural Poetics

       Stein’s Ford

       Assembling This

       The Bride

       CHAPTER 4: The Constructivist Moment: From El Lissitzky to Detroit Techno

       The Great Divide

       Lissitzky’s Examples

       Constructivist Poetics

       Detroit Techno

       Moments

       CHAPTER 5: Nonnarrative and the Construction of History: An Era of Stagnation, the Fall of Saigon

       Nonnarrative Poetics

       The Construction of History

       An Era of Stagnation

       The Fall of Saigon

       Nonnarrative Ending

       CHAPTER 6: Negative Examples: Theories of Negativity in the Avant-Garde

       Negativity

       Dark Matter

       The Nothing That Is

       Limit Situations

       Negativities

       CHAPTER 7: Post-Soviet Subjectivity in Arkadii Dragomoshchenko and Ilya Kabakov

       After the Fall

       Dragomoshchenko’s Metapoetics

       Kabakov’s Kommunalka

       Post-Soviet/Postmodern

       CHAPTER 8: Zone: The Poetics of Space