John Ashbery | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 28 pages of analysis & critique of John Ashbery.

John Ashbery | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 28 pages of analysis & critique of John Ashbery.
This section contains 8,221 words
(approx. 28 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by David Kalstone

SOURCE: "Reading John Ashbery's Poems," in The Denver Quarterly, Vol. X, No. 4, Winter, 1976, pp. 6-34.

In the following essay, Kalstone traces the thematic and stylistic development of Ashbery's verse.

In 1972 John Ashbery was invited to read at Shiraz, in Iran, where for several years the Empress had sponsored a festival gathering music, art, and drama remarkable, even notorious, for its modernity: Peter Brook's Orghast, Robert Wilson's week-long production Ka Mountain and GUARDenia Terrace, Merce Cunningham's dances, the music of Stockhausen and John Cage. Ashbery and another visitor, David Kermani, reported that "to a country without significant modern traditions, still under the spell of its own great past, where a production of Shaw or Ibsen would count as a novelty, such an effort even might seem quixotic". Taking into consideration Iranian critics who demanded Shakespeare first or Chekhov first, Ashbery's own response was delighted and characteristic: "The important thing...

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This section contains 8,221 words
(approx. 28 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by David Kalstone
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Critical Essay by David Kalstone from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.