Reading Uncreative Writing

This book examines Uncreative Writing the catch-all term to describe Neo-Conceptualism, Flarf and related avant-garde movements in contemporary North American poetry against a decade of controversy. David Kaufman analyzes texts by Kenneth Goldsmith, Vanessa Place, Robert Fitterman, Ara Shirinyan, Craig Dworkin, Dan Farrell and Katie Degentesh to demonstrate that Uncreative Writing is not a revolutionary break from lyric tradition as its proponents claim. Nor is it a racist, reactionary capitulation to neo-liberalism as its detractors argue. Rather, this monograph shows that Uncreative Writing s real innovations and weaknesses become clearest when read in the context of the very lyric that it claims to have left behind.

1 Introduction. - 2
The Author as Collector:
Kenneth Goldsmith s

Aestheticism. - 3
Isn t It All Just Bullshit? :
From Uncreative Writing to Warhol and Back. - 4
Writing While White:
Uncreative Writing, Racism and Disavowal. - 5
For Expression:
Uncreative Writing, Affect and Critique. - 6
Approaching The Transsubjective:
How To Do Things With the MMPI. - 7
Conclusion.