西北师范大学美国文学通史课件 Chapter 22 Colonial Period.pptVIP

Chapter 22 The New York School ●Meditative Poetry ●The Black Mountain Poets Ⅰ.The New York School The so-called New York School became well known with the publication of Donald Allens 1960 anthology. The school then included Frank OHara, Kenneth Koch (1925- ), John Ashbery, and James Schuyler (1923- ). Common Features: 1. They were all vehemently up against the dominant New Critical values such as the impersonal presentation of images, and tried to assert their individual poetic voice. 2. They introduced the popular and the low features of life into their writings like popular songs, comic strip figures, and Hollywood movies. 3. They exhibited a huge sense of humor, offering room as their poems did for elements like the vulgar and the sentimental. 4. They experimented with Surrealism, for a while. Frank OHara (1926-1966) 1. Literary Status: An American writer and art critic. As a poet, he was a key member of the New York School of poetry. 2. Life and Career Frank OHara was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1926 and grew up in Massachusetts. He served in the Navy and later studied at Harvard and the University of Michigan, then moved to New York. He was on staff at that Museum of Modern Art from 1952 until his death in 1966(he was run over by a dune buggy on Fire Island). He was very active in the art scene, most notably with the abstract expressionist painters. He also worked as a playwright and critic and soon became the epicenter of a circle of poets known as the New York School.  3. Ideas O’Hara believed that poetry should be a spur of the moment, personal spontaneity where abstract was ruled out in favor of the artist’s personal style or voice. OHaras poetry shows the influence of Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, Russian poetry, and poets associated with French Symbolism. OHaras early poems like Second Avenue were mostly surrealistic, and as such were often painfully obscure though there is a good deal of wit there. Later he was noted for the