I have been primarily interested in the varieties of Twentieth Century American poetry, especially in relation to philosophy and to the visual arts. I also recently wrote a book on the affects and that shapes my thinking on most topics. But I am in transition. I have been teaching Shakespeare and Hegel and will teach the epic because I want a grand stage on which to figure out what I can say about affect in literature. I am also working on book introducing ways of thinking about modern American poetry.
I have just completed a large book about Modernist responses to materialisms. I argue that new materialism is great for dealing with Impressionist art, but that achievement also marks its limitations because the artists turn inward to states of self-consciousness that provide alternatives to what saw as the retinal commitments of impressionism. Hegel on inner sensuousness becomes a major figure for thining about what self-consciousness can be in the working of art and poetry. And with this help one can elaborate states of consciouness that do not fit well into current cognitivist work.
I am beginning a project on how James on radical empiricism and Bradley in Appearance and Reality both see experience as prior to subjectivity. This affords an alternative to Romantic poetics very attractive to Modernist poets. I am asking what work can the concept of experience do for criticism and what are relevant forms of experience that fascinate the poets.
I am also teaching a course in Lyric poetry with some interest in writing on Jonathan Culler's book on that topic.
