Walzer, Kevin

About the author: Kevin Walzer holds a PhD in English from the University of Cincinnati, and is the author of three critical studies. One of his books, The Ghost of Tradition: Expansive Poetry and Postmodernism (1998) was named an outstanding book of the

Resurgence of Traditional Poetic Form and the Current Status of Poetry’s Place in American Culture

2001 0-7734-7554-0
This study focuses on a movement called ‘constructive postmodernism’ which, in the work of such theorists as Frederick Turner, has helped to chart new directions for literary theory past the fragmentary impasses of deconstruction, identity politics, and cultural studies. It develops alternative readings of such poets as Wallace Stevens, Edna St. Vincent Millay, E. E. Cummings, James Wright, Hayden Carruth, Rita Dove, John Haines, Judson Jerome, and Sam Hamill. The book also raises questions about the status of poetry in contemporary American culture, particularly its relationship with the university.