A Common Strangeness: Contemporary Poetry, Cross-Cultural Encounter, Comparative Literature

My book A Common Strangeness: Contemporary Poetry, Cross-Cultural Encounter, Comparative Literature has just been released by Fordham University Press. Extracts from the book can be read on Google Books here. The book is available for purchase here. For further details, see my blog:
http://commonstrangeness.wordpress.com.

"A Common Strangeness is unique among studies of contemporary poetics in being genuinely global in its perspective and its reach. At home in Russian and Chinese as well as American poetry and that of his native New Zealand, Jacob Edmond pinpoints the crucial relationships that exist between what are seemingly disparate poetic cultures. The Chinese poet Yang Lian, who lived in exile in Auckland, is read under the sign of Benjamin and Baudelaire. The American Language poet Lyn Hejinian's important dialogue with the Russian avant-gardist Arkadii Dragomoshchenko is studied carefully, and Bei Dao, Dmitri Prigov, and Charles Bernstein are treated as representative figures of cross-cultural thinking in the age of globalism. Edmond's is a provocative, exciting, and genuinely original study of the new poetics; we will all be learning from it!"––Marjorie Perloff

"This bold triangulation of six Chinese, Russian, and American poets advances lively current debates about global literature by exploring encounters that challenge the old binarisms and chart possibilities of literary singularities for a future poetics. Edmond's shrewd account of literary crossings in post-Cold War history helps us imagine how we can experience the challenge of new literary configurations."––Jonathan Culler

"Jacob Edmond addresses what he calls 'forms of textual strangeness' across contemporary poems of beautiful complexity and staying power. This theoretically astute book challenges us to read with a keener eye and to recognize how much poetry can tell us about political catastrophes, national dislocations, and promises of cultural renewal."—Stephanie Sandler

Chinese / American Association for Poetry and Poetics（CAAP）

The Chinese/American Association for Poetry and Poetics (CAAP), initiated by Marjorie Perloff, Charles Bernstein, and Nie Zhenzhao, was established in January 2008 with its headquarters at Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, University of Pennsylvania, USA. This is an international academic organization devoted to the study of poetry and poetics, focusing on the scholarship and translation of international poetry, with special emphasis on the study and translation of North American poetry in China and Chinese poetry in North America, but also with a commitment to see North American poetry and Chinese poetry in a global context. The association will endeavor to introduce American and Western poetry and poetics to China so as to produce new energy for Chinese poetry and its study, and to introduce Chinese poetry and poetics to America and the world. Attention will also be paid to the scholarship and translation of philosophical approaches to poetry and translation so as to promote the study of poetry and poetics in the context of literary studies.

A non-profit organization, CAAP is composed of scholars and poets of America, China and other parts of the world. It is chaired by Marjorie Perloff, professor emerita at Stanford University and former president of the Modern Language Association of America and American Association of Comparative Literature. Charles Bernstein, professor of University of Pennsylvania and fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Nie Zhenzhao, professor of Central China Normal University, vice president of the China National Association of Foreign Literature and chief editor of Foreign Literature Studies (FLS), an AHCI source journal, serve as vice presidents. The current association board is composed of the American and Chinese scholars and poets (See below).

CAAP will sponsor academic activities such as scholarly conferences, exchanges of scholars, translation, and publication. All scholars and poets who share the interests of this Association are warmly welcome to join. The email address is caap2008@gmail.com

President: Marjorie Perloff
Vice Presidents: Charles Bernstein, Nie Zhenzhao
Executive director：Luo Lianggong

Members of CAAP Board:

Dong, Hongchuan Sichuan International Studies University, China
Er, Zhang Evergreen College, USA
Filreis, Al University of Pennsylvania, USA
Hu, Sishe Xi’an International Studies University, China
Huang, Yunte University of California at Santa Barbara, USA
Jiang, Hongxin Hunan Normal University, China
Li, Zhimin Guangzhou University, China
Lin, Tan New Jersey City University, USA
Liu, Jianjun Northeast Normal University, China
Luo, Lianggong Wuhan University of Technology, China
Luo, Yimin Southwest Normal University, China
Ma, Ming-Qian State University of New York at Buffalo, USA
Ning, Yizhong Beijing Language and Culture University, China
Ou, Hong Sun Yat-sen University, China
Qian, Zhaoming University of New Orleans, USA
Saussy, Haun Yale University, USA
Schwartz, Leonard Evergreen College, USA
Slaymaker, Doug University of Kentucky, USA
Sun, Jian Fudan University, China
Twitchell-Waas, Jeff Overseas Family College, Singapore
Yang, Jincai Nanjing University, China
Yeh, Michelle University of California at Davis, USA
Yin, Qiping Zhejiang University, China
Yu, Tim University of Toronto, Canada

Wuhan Conference

Call for Papers

International Conference on the 20th-Century American Poetry Wuhan, China July 21-23, 2007

The International Conference on the 20th-Century American Poetry will take place in Wuhan, China, July 21-23, 2007. It is organized by Foreign Literature Studies (an AHCI source journal), Central China Normal University, and co-sponsored by such institutions as Centre for Programs in Contemporary Writing, University of Pennsylvania (USA), Beijing Language and Culture University (China), and Northwest Normal University (China). The main topic of the conference is the 20th-Century American Poetry with subtopics as follows:

1. Charles Bernstein and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E
2. Langston Hughes: his art and influence (A special symposium on Langston Hughes will take place during the conference.)
3. The politics of poetic form in modernist and contemporary American poetry
4. Visual and sound text, performance, and collaboration in the 20th-century American poetry
5. Rethinking the canon of American poets, modernist, postwar, and contemporary: new perspectives, new challenges
6. Minority, mainstream, insider, outsider: who writes American poetry and who reads it?
7. China and American poetic Encounters and Differences in the 20th and 21st century

This will be a large-scale academic conference in China completely devoted to the 20th-century American poetry and will be attended by many distinguished scholars from the world like Professor Marjorie Perloff, president of Modern Language Association of America (MLA) and fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS), and Professor Charles Bernstein, theoretician of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry and fellow of AAAS. Conference languages are Chinese and English.

Papers for this conference are now called from scholars all over the world. Quality papers will be selected for publication in Foreign Literature Studies and The World Literature Criticism, and the proceedings of the conference will be published afterward.The official letters of invitation for this conference will be sent upon receipt of the papers or abstracts. Papers and/or abstracts are expected to be submitted by mail or, preferably, by e-mail by March 15, 2007, to:

Professor Luo Lianggong
Editorial Office, Foreign Literature Studies,
Central China Normal University
152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China
Phone: 27-6786 6042 ( also Fax), 138-8606 7048
E-mail: flschina @ yahoo.com
For more details about this conference, please go to our website: www.flschina.net

Call for Papers
The International Symposium on Langston Hughes
Wuhan, China July 21-23, 2007

The International Symposium on Langston Hughes will take place as a special event of the 3-day International Conference on the 20th-Century American Poetry on the campus of Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China, July 21-23, 2007. Both these two events are sponsored by Foreign Literature Studies, one of Chinas top academic journals and also an AHCI source journal, together with organizations like University of Pennsylvania, Beijing Language and Culture University, and Northwest Normal University (China). This symposium on Langston Hughes will focus mainly on Langston Hughes as a Poet: His Art and Influence with the following 3 subtopics:
1) Langston Hughes in the context of American literature;
2) Langston Hughes and China;
3) Langston Hughes from the international perspective.
At the symposium a special ceremony will be held in commemoration of this great African-American poet in the 40th anniversary of his death. Please submit your papers or abstracts for this conference and symposium by April 30, 2007, to Professor Luo Lianggong, assistant editor-in-chief of Foreign Literature Studies, who is now undertaking a project on Langston Hughes sponsored by China National Funds for Philosophy and Social Sciences.

His address:
Professor Luo Lianggong
Editorial Office, Foreign Literature Studies
Central China Normal University
152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China
E-mail: luogon2 @ yahoo.com or flschina @ yahoo.com
Phone/Fax: 86-27-6786 6042