Sunday, July 18th, 2010
“Often when I read examples of what purport to be lyric essays, I …find them resembling a certain kind of experimental poetry that has proliferated for at least forty years…There tends to be a reliance on structural, conceptual devices, such as lists or repeating word-phrases, a welcoming of stream-of-conscious, surrealist disjunctive leaps from line to line, and a suppression of mounting argument, replaced by circularity or trance… “
—Phillip Lopate
Tags: Essayists, Essays
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Monday, July 5th, 2010
Lyric Essay
Words that go with the lyric essay include fragments, collage, mosaic, white space, juxtaposition, braided narratives, heightened attention to language.
Deborah Tall and John D’Agata:
The lyric essay doesn’t expound, is suggestive rather than exhaustive, depends on gaps, may merely mention. It might move by association, leaping from one path of thought to another by way of imagery or connotation, advancing by juxtaposition or sidewinding poetic logic. It often accretes by fragments, taking shape mosaically, its import visible only when one stands back and sees it whole.
Tags: Essayists, Essays
Posted in Creative Nonfiction, Essayists, Essays, Thirteen Ways of Looking at an Essay | No Comments »
