The Negative Economy of Nothingness in Charles Bernstein’s Poetics

FENG Yi

Volume 2 Issue 2

Mar. 2021

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FENG Yi. The Negative Economy of Nothingness in Charles Bernstein’s Poetics[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2019, 2(2): 206-223.

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FENG Yi. The Negative Economy of Nothingness in Charles Bernstein’s Poetics[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2019, 2(2): 206-223.

FENG Yi. The Negative Economy of Nothingness in Charles Bernstein’s Poetics[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2019, 2(2): 206-223.

Citation:

FENG Yi. The Negative Economy of Nothingness in Charles Bernstein’s Poetics[J]. International Comparative Literature, 2019, 2(2): 206-223.

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The Negative Economy of Nothingness in Charles Bernstein’s Poetics

FENG Yi

Northeastern University

Received Date: 2018-10-24
Publish Date: 2021-03-09

Abstract

Abstract

In his book Pitch of Poetry, Charles Bernstein writes that his motto has long been Emily Dickinson’s“ Don’t you know that‘ No’ is the wildest word we consign to Language?”, indicating that his poetry resonates with the paradoxical meanings of“No” endowed by Dickinson. Bernstein’s poetry has a negative economy which is often simply interpreted as purely negative and misinterpreted. Zen and Taoism spread to America in the 1950s. Dr. D. T. Suzuki states that nothingness in Zen denotes not only negativity but also multiple possibilities. Similarly, in Taoism, nothingness is called the Tao, which can engender multiple particular entities and fullness in the universe. Bernstein claims that nothingness serves as a major and pivotal theme in his poetics. Nothingness in ZenTaoism plays an indispensable role in understanding fully Bernstein’s poetics and aesthetics. By interpreting some of Bernstein’s representative poems, I argue that the poetic nothingness in Bernstein’s poetry serves as not only an elegiac and negative force but also a positive force and a void for“pataquerical struggles” to be engendered in order to make poetics and aesthetics expand to the infinity. Moreover, Bernstein’s poetic nothingness is the amalgamation of American literary tradition, American post-conceptual ideas, as well as the nothingness in Zen-Taoism. What is the most significant is that the poetic nothingness in Bernstein’s poetry expands the notion of “art for art’s sake” and showcases Bernstein’s transcendence of the paradox of art.
- Charles Bernstein,
- nothingness,
- American poetry,
- Zen-Taoism,
- post-conceptual poetry

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References(43)

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