Mr. Amit Ben Ami

My research considers the ways subjectivity emerges from experimental uses of language in twentieth century Avant-garde American poetry. I study the works of Gertrude Stein, Bernadette Mayer, and earlier New York school poets, tracing a stylistic lineage where a focus on the non-referential compositional aspect of writing refigures the lyric mode. My research includes these poets’ philosophical influences (such as William James and Ludwig Wittgenstein), their own theoretical writing, historical ties to painters and art movements, and recent scholarship on Modernism, language poetics, lyric studies, and affect theory.