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Flowers Among the Carrion
Literary Nonfiction. James Pate examines Gothic poetry and poetics by bringing the dream world, the material world, history, and critical theory into a vibrant discussion. Pate resists the traps of discourse that the Gothic aesthetic have fallen into by arguing for a new development in contemporary verse, one that runs counter to many 20th century trends in US poetry. These works are haunted by a Gothic ethos, being anti-foundationalist, anti-human-centric, and not afraid of facing nihility head-on. Drawing from contemporary works by Sade Murphy, Feng Sun Chen, and others, these meditations on the Gothic infect and distort the reader's canonical understanding of what this concept actually is, and how it operates within the flux of today's poetry.
48 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2016
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About the author
James Pate
17 books9 followersJames Pate is a fiction writer and poet. He was born in Memphis, lived many years in Chicago, and now lives in Shepherdstown, West Virginia.
He is the author of THE FASSBINDER DIARIES (Civil Coping Mechanisms), FLOWERS AMONG THE CARRION (Action Books), and the forthcoming crime novel SPEED OF LIFE (280 Steps).
He has had work published in Black Warrior Review, Blue Mesa Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, New Delta Review, Cream City Review, Plots with Guns, storySouth, La Petite Zine, Pembroke Magazine, and Superstition Review, among other places.
He is the author of THE FASSBINDER DIARIES (Civil Coping Mechanisms), FLOWERS AMONG THE CARRION (Action Books), and the forthcoming crime novel SPEED OF LIFE (280 Steps).
He has had work published in Black Warrior Review, Blue Mesa Review, Berkeley Fiction Review, New Delta Review, Cream City Review, Plots with Guns, storySouth, La Petite Zine, Pembroke Magazine, and Superstition Review, among other places.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 25, 2021
Received this slim but satisfying treatise among some other goodies from the publisher, and after picking at the opening pages for a few minutes, I felt compelled to plow right in. I would describe this as a set of unified essays circling a theme, with each focused on a contemporary poetry collection that offers a whiff of the titular carrion. I don’t often read theory but found this quite satisfying, as a fan of poetry and overwrought morbidity in all its forms. Now to read everything referenced within...
February 2, 2018
If you come across this without being familiar with the authors this book discusses (Joyelle McSweeney, Johannes Gorasson, Sade Murphy, and Feng Sun Chen), I think you'll find compelling reasons to read them and an interesting way to relate them to the early Gothic writings mentioned in the prologue. If you're coming at it with familiarity, you'll still find an interesting analysis that makes you want to re-read them.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews