This is one of my favorite literary treats that I return to when I want perspective, when I want to be lifted out of the linear and escape into freewritten bliss. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. It defines identity by fragmentation, which characterizes the postmodern bent of Hejinian's fellow Language poets. Poetry. Seven years later, a revised edition appeared, expanding the text to 45 sections of 45 sentences, in accordance with the author's age yet again. My Life is a book of poetry written by Lyn Hejinian and released in 2002. However, Hejinian keeps overall coherence at arm's length: she acknowledges that when writing any history it is "impossible to get close to the original, or to know 'what really happened.'" Description: First edition. To see what your friends thought of this book. My Life is composed of titled prose paragraphs, each built of disjunctive sentences that avoid coherence. Click here for the lowest price! but i had a dream run of meeting people, including lyn. I felt like Lyn Hejinian got so close to something great. A beautiful and poetic exploration of self, memory, process, and language... A truly unique autobiography in which each sentence stands as its own poem without detracting from the book as a whole. My Life [Lyn Hejinian] on Amazon.com. Michael said: A work of slow art, as well as one of the few collections of Language poetry that has aged well. Historian Alexis Coe's new book, You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington, arrived in U.S. bookstores in February. My Life, however, can also be seen as an autobiography, examining the subjective experience… You spill the sugar when you lift the spoon. from Writing Is an Aid to Memory: 17. Lyn Hejinian was born in the San Francisco Bay Area on May 17, 1941. One person found this helpful. Surrealist poetry is a new thing for me and I love the poetic images that set me in a new direction, but my thirst for narrative and vicarious exeperience goes unsatisfied and I'm left wanting more. Rather, Hejinian’s work insists that alternative means of expression are necessary to truly represent the confessional or the real. First edition of this landmark work of the Language tendency. The book arrived forty years into Hejinian's long and prolific career. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. Born in 1941 in Oakland, California, where Gertrude Stein had grown up fifty years earlier, Lyn Hejinian is a poet, essaysist, translator, and publisher who currently lives and teaches in Berkeley, California. “To some extent, each sentence has to be the whole story.”, As for we who "love to be astonished," this book does not merely suffice, it. It is also a hallmark of feminist experimental writing, establishing a new and distinct voice. The language wasn't bad, but I'm not so sure why other reviewers here are cumming in their athleisure wear about it. I can keep reading it over and over, each time with a different reading. Start by marking “My Life” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. At this reading, Hejinian read a sequence of four sections, starting with the one "about" her fifth year of life (from 4-5 years old). 8vo, perfect bound in illustrated wraps. As far as the general narrative, which forms a big, big part of My Life, it's hard why I should care in particular about this one upper middle class kid with a pony. The text is allusive and often ambiguous. As a non-poet and rare poetry reader, I’m rarely impressed by this sort of high modernist plate-spinning trickery, unless it’s purely prose, but this book impresses by its emphasis on the word over the world (thanks Gass), which Hejinian’s bourgeois book-driven upbringing would have inculcated in her from the off. Motivated Proceduralism. It questions the nature of autobiography and challenges the idea of memoir, reevaluating what it means to call a piece of writing a "life." She has published over a dozen books of poetry and numerous books of essays as well as two volumes of translations of the Russian poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko. Welcome back. 5.0 out of 5 stars My Life. My Life (Sun & Moon Classics) by Lyn Hejinian. Each sentence is a dissertation. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. Read more. 'You should know that men like Benvenuto, unique in their profession, need not be subject to the law.' Wonderful choice of words, high musicality and great use of poetry. if you do like postmodernism, you'll fall in love. However, I must say that this is a book that will stay with me forever. Chun, Sehjae. Don't give your children horses. if you don't like postmodernism, you'll be annoyed. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. My life by Lyn Hejinian, 1987, Sun & Moon Press edition, in English Many of the sentences appear as windows into a life, while others act as brief aphorisms on the making of the book itself. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. Click here for the lowest price! Comment Report abuse. In her essay "The Rejection of Closure," published in The Language of Inquiry (UC Press, 2000) Hejinian explains the reasons for making such an "open text": My Life represents a breakthrough in several respects. May 1st 2002 From 1976 to 1984 she was editor of Tuumba Press, and from 1981 to 1999 she co-edited (with Barrett Watten) Poetics Journal. I really like Hejinian but this book is hampered by a comfortable middle-class sense of continuity that ughhh arghh I can't even finish it, she HAD HORSES, SHE HAD HORSES. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. A work of slow art, as well as one of the few collections of Language poetry that has aged well, An excellent “poetic autobiography,” told in lyrical, repetitious, elliptical prose, slowly passing through a life with baffling clarity, bamboozling starkness and confuddling honesty. Paperback, 9781931243339, 1931243336 By Lyn Hejinian. This is a text that is "open" in the sense that it acknowledges so much more than the words with which it is written. The things I was saying followed logically the things that I had said before, yet bore no relation to what I was thinking and feeling.”, “In every country is a word which attempts the sound of cats, to match an inisolable portrait in the clouds to a din in the air. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. Absolutely brilliant. Some are obviously convinced as to its merit, and searching the work's title reveals pleas from confused students who fail to discern its worth. Lyn Hejinian on her groundbreaking My Life and reordering time. Lyn Hejinian's My Life blends genre and literary form to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct modern living in America. second five-star read of the year so far. No review necessary. Phrases recur and weave together as motifs throughout, making new meanings through repetition. Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. Many people, in my experience, will come up against this book (because you don't merely read it--you come up against it) and say that they find it impenetrable or heavy-handed. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. I felt like Lyn Hejinian got so close to something great. Hejinian is often regarded as an avant-garde, feminist, language poet; examining language that dictates and reinforces ideology through a fragmented form of pros. It feels like a stream-of-consciousness Woolfian-Kundera daydream. By Lyn Hejinian. The continuation of the project begun in Hejinian's best-selling MY LIFE—also available from SPD—MY LIFE IN THE NINETIES provides important glimpses into related works such as HAPPILY, THE BEGINNER, and SLOWLY. Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Refresh and try again. Just read it. Welcome First published as a thirty-seven-part work, by Rosmarie and Keith Waldrop’s Burning Deck Press in 1980, Lyn Hejinian’s My Life has become firmly established in the postmodern canon. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. Her autobiographical poem My Life, a best-selling book of innovative American poetry, has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia.The Language of Inquiry is a comprehensive and wonderfully readable collection of her essays, and its publication promises to be an important event for American literary culture. I had to read this book for a poetry class; at first it struck me as nonsensical and too unique for its own good. Her poem My Life has garnered accolades and fans inside and outside academia. My Life (Green Integer Books, 39) by Lyn Hejinian. A work of slow art, as well as one of the few collections of Language poetry that has aged well, My Life in its original form consists of 37 sections, 37 sentences each, that condense the first 37 years of the life of avant-garde poet Lyn Hejinian into verse. and it is another poetry collection. Lyn Hejinian delivers, in spurts and fits. Read More. Composed of forty-five sections, titled, each containing forty-five sentences, My Life is an experimental memoir poem. I don't have the words to adequately describe what Lyn Hejinian has achieved here. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. The chapter headings usually reappear embedded in the subsequent chapter text, hinting at mathematical structures or arrangements between chapters (or even sentences?). Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published It's difficult to make an evaluation of this book. But the book's greatest strength may be its openness to interpretation. Hejinian avoids any semblance of narrative structure or … Her groundbreaking work contributed greatly to the community-centered, non … My Life. To leave it at that, to say that the difference results from the different methods and intents, however, is to rest on but the surface of the matter and accomplish nothing. But poetic memoirs of childhood have been done so, so much better by people like Walter Benjamin and Nathalie Sarraute, and by aiming for the rubric of “poetry” rather than memoir, this means I'm going to be VERY persnickety about language (and not, for example, allow all caps, eep). Recognized today as one of the great works of contemporary American literature, My Life is at once poetic autobiography, personal narrative, a woman’s fiction, and an ongoing dialogue with the poet and her experience. W. S. Ikard. Up there with the absolute best poetry I've ever read. The consistent self-presentation begins at the structural level of My Life. The chapter headings usually reappear embedded in the subsequent chapter text, hinting at mathematical structures or arrangements between chapters (or even sentences?). This Wesleyan edition includes the 45-part prose poem seq.... (read more) But the constant noise is not an omen of music to come.”, San Francisco Poetry Center Book Award (1987), In Which These Are the 100 Greatest Novels, Alexis Coe on Why It Matters When Women Write History. My Life Born in 1941 in Oakland, California, where Gertrude Stein had grown up fifty years earlier, Lyn Hejinian is a poet, essaysist, translator, and publisher who currently lives and teaches in Berkeley, California. Poet, essayist, and translator, she is also the author and coauthor of several books of poetry, most recently Tribunal (Omnidawn Publishing, 2019). But poetic memoirs of childhood have been done so, so much better by people like Walter Benjamin and Nathalie Sarraute, and by aiming for the rubric of “poetry” rather than memoir, this means I'm going to be VERY persnickety about language (and not, for example, allow all caps, eep). Perhaps the way to approach it, at least right now, is through a simple list of pros and cons: I love the sheer imagistic and synesthetic beauty of the first sentence. First published in 1980, and revised in 1987 and 2002, My Life is now firmly established in the postmodern canon. The copy I have of Hejinian's My Life esteems both its wide readership by 'hundreds of colleges and university courses around the world', as well as status: a 'great work of contemporary literature.' Hejinian is a master poet. The lines of poetry do not occur in chronological order, but together form a "verbal tapestry" of Lyn Hejinian's life. Her sort-of-autobiographical prose-poem "My Life" is widely regarded as Language writing's masterpiece. My Life has ratings and 62 reviews. An overview of. by Green Integer. From 1976 to 1984, Hejinian was editor of Tuumba Press, and since 1981 she has been the co-editor of Poetics Journal. The language wasn't bad, but I'm not so sure why other reviewers here are cumming in their athleisure wear about it. 2 (2004): 1-25. Paperback, 9781557130242, 1557130248 Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. You must go int this collection with zero expectations, she is a Language Poet and writes emphasizing the readers role in interpreting and bringing meaning to what she has written. All that matters is what the artist committed. once i was photocopying this for a class, but there was a sheet of labels in the machine, so i had a page of labels with text from my life - i put them on my current exercise book for writing poems, which i took to the us in 2004. i hardly wrote any good poems tho - & i was sick! Lyn Hejinian is among the most prominent of contemporary American poets. Hejinian has continued to update the book over time, allowing it to grow with her, and has released a further volume entitled My Life in the Nineties (Shark, 2003). The rest are citations and footnotes. Lyn Hejinian Recognized today as one of the great works of contemporary American literature, My Life is at once poetic autobiography, personal narrative, a woman’s fiction, and an ongoing dialogue with the poet and her experience. I'm sorry, but when I wasn't confused I was a little bored. I could read this book once a year and love it for something new each time. Her experimental autobiography My Life, first published in 1980, is the purest example of this poetic project, and established her as one of the foremost members of the Language school of poetry. Her long “novels” My Life (2002) and Oxata (1991) unabashedly draw on her own experiences and are in some ways recognizably autobiographical. Author: Hejinian, Lyn Title: My Life Publication: Providence, RI: Burning Deck, 1980 Edition: First edition. She is often associated with the Language poets and is well known for her landmark work, “People must flatter their own eyes with their pathetic lives. -Lyn Hejinian, My Life Despite the relentless challenging of the subject in twentieth-century theory, it is still a cliche that autobiography is the place where the conventions of representation are narrative, where I liked her last 8 sections best, written 8 years after the original work, which contained a little more narrative. Hejinian's work explores how personal identity may be constructed by and through language. I'm really, really torn on this. We’d love your help. Account & Lists Account Returns & Orders. of the Sun & Moon edition (). Lyn Hejinian's My Life is one of the foundational texts of Language Poetry. from Writing Is an Aid to Memory: 16. Lyn Hejinian (born May 17, 1941) is an American poet, essayist, translator and publisher. Helpful. This is top class. The format though is beyond my understanding and the “storytelling” unnervingly cryptic. If you're tacky enough to have had a happy childhood, leave it out of your books. "'As for we who 'love to be astonished,'" I was! When originally published in 1980, My Life consisted of 37 prose sections, each consisting of 37 sentences; 37 was Hejinian's age at the time of its writing. Thought provoking, inspiring, and a resource of meditation. Be the first to ask a question about My Life. Oh well, à chacun son goût! 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