My Soviet Union
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€18.99
A01=Michael Dumanis
adoption of historical and fictional figures
ambigendered perspectives in poetry
Author_Michael Dumanis
autobiographical and semi-autobiographical poetry
Azerbaijani cultural reflections
carnival-esque humor in poetry
Category=DCF
contemporary poetry collection
cultural and political critique in poetry
cultural idioms in contemporary poetry
disjunctive narrative techniques
elegiac and humorous poems
elegy and ode forms
elliptical narrative structure
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_poetry
experimental poetic form
exploration of exile and home
explorations of identity and self
fragmented narrative poetry
global and local settings in poetry
grief and mourning in verse
historical and cultural memory in poems
humor and tragedy in verse
identity and role-playing in poetry
lighthouse symbolism in literature
lyric experimentation and innovation
memory and imagin
Midwest American settings in poetry
minor dictators in literary imagination
narrative complexity in poetic form
paradox and irony in verse
poems of love and anger
poetic exploration of dislocation
poetic exploration of trauma
poetic personae and multiple voices
poetry blending high and low diction
poetry exploring childhood memories
poetry with social and political commentary
post-apocalyptic landscape in literature
psychological complexity in verse
recurring imagery and symbolism
romantic failure in poetry
spiritual and physical struggle
surreal and carnivalesque imagery
syntactical variation in poetry
themes of illness and recovery
vaudevillian influences in verse
war and its psychological impact
Product details
- ISBN 9781558495852
- Weight: 156g
- Dimensions: 154 x 226mm
- Publication Date: 28 Mar 2007
- Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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The speaker of the simultaneously funny and devastating poems in this remarkable first collection comes from a country that, like the Soviet Union, no longer exists, a place he treats with a mixture of nostalgia, disdain, and bewilderment as he strives to achieve a sense of order in his current disordered environment, a post-apocalyptic landscape with striking similarities to our own. He takes the reader through haunting and disjunctive childhood memories, on visits to Azerbaijan and West Des Moines, through the ravages of physical and spiritual illness, into and out of wars and ill-fated romantic escapades, as he carefully pieces together a complex narrative of self. This is a book of location and dislocation, intent and inaction, struggle and failure, restraint and mania, love and anger, savagery and healing, grief and merriment, elegy and ode. Technically, the poems - often litanies - are marked by syntactical variation, recurring imagery, paradoxical statement, cultural idioms, shifts between high and low diction, a carnivalesque sense of humor, and an elliptical approach to exposition. The speaker also takes on the identities of various personae in the book, including Joseph Cornell, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Pol Pot, a vaudevillian, a movie extra, minor dictators, vagrants, ambigendered lovers, and a lighthouse keeper on an uninhabited island. from ""The Death of Elegy"": Reluctant, I must onward, dearest wantword, fairest ragebird: I can no longer in the throatscratched marshland, nor do I find myself capable in the Cathedral of Learning, or any(for that matter)where in Pittsburgh. Have lugged too many bodies through its freightyards in my translucent slip. In my gauche veil, I thought I'd steel myself against despair, did not accomplish. The moon is black tonight, as if there is none. The moon tonight is either black, or stolen, and I do not possess the wherewithal to up-and-down, in search for it, on the funiculars. What I've become. An overcoat with hands, hands I would fail to feel if it were colder. [...]
MICHAEL DUMANIS was born in the former Soviet Union and lived there until his parents were granted political asylum in the United States. He holds a BA from Johns Hopkins, an MFA from the University of Iowa, and a PhD from the University of Houston. Currently an assistant professor of English at Nebraska Wesleyan University, he is coeditor of the anthology Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (2006).
