Cultural Criticism in Women's Experimental Writing

Book excerpt: Contemporary experimental poetry? By women? But is this women's writing? The type of poetry that is central to this book has long been met with surprise, if not rejection, by both critics and the general public. This volume is an introduction to recent developments in women's poetic experiments, an area that has grown from rather marginalized and isolated beginnings into a thriving and highly visible field. Women's experimental texts can no longer be ignored, but they remain a challenge to readers and critics: this study examines some of the reasons why recognition has been delayed, and it also provides a range of new readings. With particular focus on poetry by Rosmarie Waldrop, Lyn Hejinian, and Susan Howe, women's poetic experiments are shown to be a critique of current practices of cultural representation that relegate women's poetry and experimental writing to separate spheres.