This is one of my favorite literary treats that I return to when I want perspective, when I want to be lifted out of the linear and escape into freewritten bliss. Helpful. Her autobiographical poem My Life, a best-selling book of innovative American poetry, has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia.The Language of Inquiry is a comprehensive and wonderfully readable collection of her essays, and its publication promises to be an important event for American literary culture. … A beautiful and poetic exploration of self, memory, process, and language... A truly unique autobiography in which each sentence stands as its own poem without detracting from the book as a whole. Just read it. Hejinian has continued to update the book over time, allowing it to grow with her, and has released a further volume entitled My Life in the Nineties (Shark, 2003). The book arrived forty years into Hejinian's long and prolific career. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. It feels like a stream-of-consciousness Woolfian-Kundera daydream. Seller ID: 28404 When originally published in 1980, My Life consisted of 37 prose sections, each consisting of 37 sentences; 37 was Hejinian's age at the time of its writing. By Lyn Hejinian. I had to read this book for a poetry class; at first it struck me as nonsensical and too unique for its own good. Cart Lyn Hejinian Recognized today as one of the great works of contemporary American literature, My Life is at once poetic autobiography, personal narrative, a woman’s fiction, and an ongoing dialogue with the poet and her experience. Lyn Hejinian was born in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 17, 1941. The lines of poetry do not occur in chronological order, but together form a "verbal tapestry" of Lyn Hejinian's life. My Life by Lyn Hejinian. Hejinian was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in Berkeley, California, with her husband, composer/musician Larry Ochs. but i had a dream run of meeting people, including lyn. A work of slow art, as well as one of the few collections of Language poetry that has aged well, My Life in its original form consists of 37 sections, 37 sentences each, that condense the first 37 years of the life of avant-garde poet Lyn Hejinian into verse. W. S. Ikard. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Many people, in my experience, will come up against this book (because you don't merely read it--you come up against it) and say that they find it impenetrable or heavy-handed. from Writing Is an Aid to Memory: 16. By Lyn Hejinian. Comment Report abuse. Lyn Hejinian is the author of of over twenty volumes of poetry and critical prose, including several poetry collections previously published by Omnidawn: The Unfollowing, The Book of a Thousand Eyes, Saga | Circus, and The Fatalist. Spahr Lyn Hejinian's My Life Both subjectivity and objectivity are outdated filling sta-tions. Upon its first publication by Sun & Moon Press (the edition reprinted here) the publication. ", © Academy of American Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038. 2 (2004): 1-25. Paperback, 9781931243339, 1931243336 Paperback, 9781557130242, 1557130248 by Green Integer. Poet, essayist, and translator, she is also the author and coauthor of several books of poetry, most recently Tribunal (Omnidawn Publishing, 2019). Extract. But poetic memoirs of childhood have been done so, so much better by people like Walter Benjamin and Nathalie Sarraute, and by aiming for the rubric of “poetry” rather than memoir, this means I'm going to be VERY persnickety about language (and not, for example, allow all caps, eep). In her essay "The Rejection of Closure," published in The Language of Inquiry (UC Press, 2000) Hejinian explains the reasons for making such an "open text": My Life represents a breakthrough in several respects. from My Life: Reason looks for two, then arranges it from there. I could read this book once a year and love it for something new each time. As far as the general narrative, which forms a big, big part of My Life, it's hard why I should care in particular about this one upper middle class kid with a pony. if you don't like postmodernism, you'll be annoyed. Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2008. Lyn Hejinian My Life Green Integer Books ‘Recognized today as one of the great works of contemporary American literature, My Life is at once poetic autobiography, personal narrative, a woman’s fiction, and an ongoing dialogue with the poet and her experience. "it seemed we had hardly begun and we were already there", I'm really, really torn on this. No review necessary. It is also a hallmark of feminist experimental writing, establishing a new and distinct voice. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. As a non-poet and rare poetry reader, I’m rarely impressed by this sort of high modernist plate-spinning trickery, unless it’s purely prose, but this book impresses by its emphasis on the word over the world (thanks Gass), which Hejinian’s bourgeois book-driven upbringing would have inculcated in her from the off. Lyn Hejinian's My Life is one of the foundational texts of Language Poetry. I can't believe this predates 'The Guard.' "'As for we who 'love to be astonished,'" I was! which you would be excused from not guessing at seeing the title. Recognized today as one of the great works of contemporary American literature, My Life is at once poetic autobiography, personal narrative, a woman’s fiction, and... Free shipping over $10. My Life is a book of poetry written by Lyn Hejinian and released in 2002. The format though is beyond my understanding and the “storytelling” unnervingly cryptic. My Life [Lyn Hejinian] on Amazon.com. Motivated Proceduralism. Note: This is the sixth section of My Life, “marking” Lyn Hejinian’s sixth year, It appears on pp. Read more. It questions the nature of autobiography and challenges the idea of memoir, reevaluating what it means to call a piece of writing a "life." I liked her last 8 sections best, written 8 years after the original work, which contained a little more narrative. Start by marking “My Life” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Historian Alexis Coe's new book, You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington, arrived in U.S. bookstores in February. We’d love your help. Read More. At this reading, Hejinian read a sequence of four sections, starting with the one "about" her fifth year of life (from 4-5 years old). First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. if you do like postmodernism, you'll fall in love. My Life (Sun & Moon Classics) by Lyn Hejinian. My Life is composed of titled prose paragraphs, each built of disjunctive sentences that avoid coherence. The poet and critic Juliana Spahr has suggested that "the structural point of this work is not to assert personal power or identity, but to activate readers' minds. As far. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. from Writing Is an Aid to Memory: 17. Wonderful choice of words, high musicality and great use of poetry. Lyn Hejinian on her groundbreaking My Life and reordering time. My life by Lyn Hejinian, 1987, Sun & Moon Press edition, in English By Lyn Hejinian. However, I must say that this is a book that will stay with me forever. The chapter headings usually reappear embedded in the subsequent chapter text, hinting at mathematical structures or arrangements between chapters (or even sentences?). To see what your friends thought of this book. Lyn Hejinian's My Life blends genre and literary form to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct modern living in America. Click here for the lowest price! Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. Thought provoking, inspiring, and a resource of meditation. The things I was saying followed logically the things that I had said before, yet bore no relation to what I was thinking and feeling.”, “In every country is a word which attempts the sound of cats, to match an inisolable portrait in the clouds to a din in the air. Hejinian is a master poet. But the constant noise is not an omen of music to come.”, San Francisco Poetry Center Book Award (1987), In Which These Are the 100 Greatest Novels, Alexis Coe on Why It Matters When Women Write History. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. I can keep reading it over and over, each time with a different reading. Spine creased, though binding remains sturdy, some minor foxing else very good. Thus spoke Pope Paul III on learning that Cellini had murdered a fellow artist, so great was Cellini's reputation in Renaissance Italy. and it is another poetry collection. Rather, Hejinian’s work insists that alternative means of expression are necessary to truly represent the confessional or the real. This Wesleyan edition includes the 45-part prose poem seq.... (read more) Surrealist poetry is a new thing for me and I love the poetic images that set me in a new direction, but my thirst for narrative and vicarious exeperience goes unsatisfied and I'm left wanting more. More Poems by Lyn Hejinian. As a non-poet and rare poetry reader, I’m rarely impressed by this sort of high modernist plate-spinning trickery, unless it’s purely prose, but t. An excellent “poetic autobiography,” told in lyrical, repetitious, elliptical prose, slowly passing through a life with baffling clarity, bamboozling starkness and confuddling honesty. Seven years later, a revised edition appeared, expanding the text to 45 sections of 45 sentences, in accordance with the author's age yet again. second five-star read of the year so far. Don't give your children horses. 5.0 out of 5 stars My Life. My Life has ratings and 62 reviews. My Life Born in 1941 in Oakland, California, where Gertrude Stein had grown up fifty years earlier, Lyn Hejinian is a poet, essaysist, translator, and publisher who currently lives and teaches in Berkeley, California. Click here for the lowest price! First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. All that matters is what the artist committed. Welcome back. Perhaps the way to approach it, at least right now, is through a simple list of pros and cons: I love the sheer imagistic and synesthetic beauty of the first sentence. It's difficult to make an evaluation of this book. Hejinian is often regarded as an avant-garde, feminist, language poet; examining language that dictates and reinforces ideology through a fragmented form of pros. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. Description: First edition. Refresh and try again. Michael said: A work of slow art, as well as one of the few collections of Language poetry that has aged well. The text is allusive and often ambiguous. Her groundbreaking work contributed greatly to the community-centered, non … I felt like Lyn Hejinian got so close to something great. Author: Hejinian, Lyn Title: My Life Publication: Providence, RI: Burning Deck, 1980 Edition: First edition. She is the co-editor of Atelos, which publishes cross-genre collaborations between poe… Each sentence is a dissertation. From 1976 to 1984, Hejinian was editor of Tuumba Press, and since 1981 she has been the co-editor of Poetics Journal. I don't have the words to adequately describe what Lyn Hejinian has achieved here. The continuation of the project begun in Hejinian's best-selling MY LIFE—also available from SPD—MY LIFE IN THE NINETIES provides important glimpses into related works such as HAPPILY, THE BEGINNER, and SLOWLY. -Lyn Hejinian, My Life Despite the relentless challenging of the subject in twentieth-century theory, it is still a cliche that autobiography is the place where the conventions of representation are narrative, where As the book begins: Another significant feature of the work is how it has changed over time. Hejinian's work explores how personal identity may be constructed by and through language. A work of slow art, as well as one of the few collections of Language poetry that has aged well, An excellent “poetic autobiography,” told in lyrical, repetitious, elliptical prose, slowly passing through a life with baffling clarity, bamboozling starkness and confuddling honesty. Buy a cheap copy of My Life book by Lyn Hejinian. The copy I have of Hejinian's My Life esteems both its wide readership by 'hundreds of colleges and university courses around the world', as well as status: a 'great work of contemporary literature.' Oh well, à chacun son goût! Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. Her long “novels” My Life (2002) and Oxata (1991) unabashedly draw on her own experiences and are in some ways recognizably autobiographical. once i was photocopying this for a class, but there was a sheet of labels in the machine, so i had a page of labels with text from my life - i put them on my current exercise book for writing poems, which i took to the us in 2004. i hardly wrote any good poems tho - & i was sick! When she was thirty-seven years old, Lyn Hejinian wrote My Life, one of the best-known works to emerge from the Language movement with which she is associated.As autobiography, it challenges most conventions of the genre. My Life. Hejinian avoids any semblance of narrative structure or … Her experimental autobiography My Life, first published in 1980, is the purest example of this poetic project, and established her as one of the foremost members of the Language school of poetry. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. Many of the sentences appear as windows into a life, while others act as brief aphorisms on the making of the book itself. 8vo, perfect bound in illustrated wraps. However, Hejinian keeps overall coherence at arm's length: she acknowledges that when writing any history it is "impossible to get close to the original, or to know 'what really happened.'" First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. Chun, Sehjae. One person found this helpful. Hejinian's work explores how personal identity may be constructed by and through language. “’Life Is Hopelessly Frayed, All Loose Ends’: The Disruption of a Female Subjectivity in Lyn Hejinian’s My Life.” Feminist Studies in English Literature 12, no. May 1st 2002 My Life, however, can also be seen as an autobiography, examining the subjective experience… I really like Hejinian but this book is hampered by a comfortable middle-class sense of continuity that ughhh arghh I can't even finish it, she HAD HORSES, SHE HAD HORSES. Some are obviously convinced as to its merit, and searching the work's title reveals pleas from confused students who fail to discern its worth. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. The book arrived forty years into Hejinian's long and prolific career. Be the first to ask a question about My Life. 'You should know that men like Benvenuto, unique in their profession, need not be subject to the law.' This is a text that is "open" in the sense that it acknowledges so much more than the words with which it is written. of the Sun & Moon edition (). Poetry. Lyn Hejinian delivers, in spurts and fits. Her sort-of-autobiographical prose-poem "My Life" is widely regarded as Language writing's masterpiece. First edition of this landmark work of the Language tendency. I'm sorry, but when I wasn't confused I was a little bored. Recognized today as one of the great works of contemporary American literature, My Life is at once poetic autobiography, personal narrative, a woman’s fiction, and an ongoing dialogue with the poet and her experience. My Life (Green Integer Books, 39) by Lyn Hejinian. Absolutely brilliant. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. This is top class. You must go int this collection with zero expectations, she is a Language Poet and writes emphasizing the readers role in interpreting and bringing meaning to what she has written. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. To leave it at that, to say that the difference results from the different methods and intents, however, is to rest on but the surface of the matter and accomplish nothing. An overview of. Composed of forty-five sections, titled, each containing forty-five sentences, My Life is an experimental memoir poem. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. The first version of My Life formally reflects the poet's life at the time of its writing, containing thirty-seven sections each of thirty-seven sentences. The consistent self-presentation begins at the structural level of My Life. Born in 1941 in Oakland, California, where Gertrude Stein had grown up fifty years earlier, Lyn Hejinian is a poet, essaysist, translator, and publisher who currently lives and teaches in Berkeley, California. Hello, Sign in. From 1976 to 1984 she was editor of Tuumba Press, and from 1981 to 1999 she co-edited (with Barrett Watten) Poetics Journal. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published The most stunning piece of LANGUAGE poetry I've ever read. Up there with the absolute best poetry I've ever read. The language wasn't bad, but I'm not so sure why other reviewers here are cumming in their athleisure wear about it. She is often associated with the Language poets and is well known for her landmark work, “People must flatter their own eyes with their pathetic lives. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. Welcome First published as a thirty-seven-part work, by Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop’s Burning Deck Press in 1980, Lyn Hejinian’s My Life has become firmly established in the postmodern canon. The language wasn't bad, but I'm not so sure why other reviewers here are cumming in their athleisure wear about it. But the book's greatest strength may be its openness to interpretation. I felt like Lyn Hejinian got so close to something great. this little booklet is so brilliant that i feel the intense urge to underline everything...or place a remarkable indication dot on the ends of each beginning and end...as i do for only certain portions of other works i read. You spill the sugar when you lift the spoon. She has published over a dozen books of poetry and numerous books of essays as well as two volumes of translations of the Russian poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. The chapter headings usually reappear embedded in the subsequent chapter text, hinting at mathematical structures or arrangements between chapters (or even sentences?). “To some extent, each sentence has to be the whole story.”, As for we who "love to be astonished," this book does not merely suffice, it. It defines identity by fragmentation, which characterizes the postmodern bent of Hejinian's fellow Language poets. Reading from My Life at San Francisco State University, 1979 Note: Each section of this work marks a year in the life of the poet. But poetic memoirs of childhood have been done so, so much better by people like Walter Benjamin and Nathalie Sarraute, and by aiming for the rubric of “poetry” rather than memoir, this means I'm going to be VERY persnickety about language (and not, for example, allow all caps, eep). The rest are citations and footnotes. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. This is maybe my favorite book ever. Phrases recur and weave together as motifs throughout, making new meanings through repetition. If you're tacky enough to have had a happy childhood, leave it out of your books. I'm really, really torn on this. For me, it is exciting and intriguing and the perfect overlapping of prose poem and autobiography. Poets, 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, new York, NY 10038 looks for two, arranges... 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