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The Cineaste
Contributor(s): Jordan, A. Van (Author)
ISBN: 0393348733     ISBN-13: 9780393348736
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
OUR PRICE:   $14.36  
Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats
Published: June 2014
Qty:
Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Poetry | American - General
Dewey: 811.6
LCCN: 2012050216
Physical Information: 0.5" H x 5.4" W x 8.1" (0.40 lbs) 144 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
A. Van Jordan, an acclaimed American poet and the author of three previous volumes, "demonstrates poetry's power to be at once intimate and wide-ranging" (Robert Pinsky, Washington Post Book World). In this penetrating new work he takes us with him to the movies, where history reverberates and characters are larger than life. The Cineaste is an entrancing montage of poems, wherein film serves as the setting for contemplative trances, memoir, and pure fantasy. At its center is a sonnet sequence that imagines the struggle of pioneer filmmaker Oscar Micheaux against D. W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, which Micheaux saw not only as racist but also as the start of a powerful new art form. "Sharpen the focus in your lens, and you / Sharpen your view of the world; you can see / How people inhabit space in their lives, / How the skin of Negroes and whites both play / With light." Scenes and characters from films such as Metropolis, Stranger than Paradise, Last Year at Marienbad, The Red Shoes, and The Great Train Robbery also come to luminous life in this vibrant new collection. The Cineaste is an extended riff on Jordan's life as a moviegoer and a brilliant exploration of film, poetry, race, and the elusiveness of reverie.

from "Last Year at Marienbad"

A place, though visible, is like a ghost
of memories. Even memories one forgets
linger in the space in which they occurred.
Here within the expanse of vaulted ceilings,

doorways leading to more doors, hallways
leading to more halls, the faintest recollections
absorb over time; no act will wholly evanesce.


Contributor Bio(s): Jordan, A. Van: - A. Van Jordan is the author of Rise, M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A, and Quantum Lyrics. Among other awards, he has received the Whiting Award, the Annisfield-Wolf Book Award, the PEN/Oakland Josephine Miles Award, and the Pushcart Prize. A professor of English at the University of Michigan, he lives in Ann Arbor.