Charles Olson and the (post) modern episteme

Abstract

This thesis argues that Charles Olson's place within the American poetic tradition is more than simply being either an imitator of a certain type of modernity or a catalyst for a radical postmodernity. Olson's designation as a postmodem figure must therefore be seen in a new and different way than has been established thus far in Olson criticism. I will argue that Charles Olson's oeuvre is best understood through a reevaluation of his position as a nexus between the modem and postmodem periods. Instead of seeing the modem as a separate totality from the postmodern, this thesis will investigate the division of these two entities in terms of Michel Foucault's conception of the episteme. Here the boundaries between the underlying sets of rules that govern the discourse of the modem episteme and the postmodern episteme become less a solid foundation for placing Olson neatly within the American literary tradition than the polemical separation that these terms actually imply. In pursuing this course of inquiry, I intend to establish a greater realization of the dynamic nature of postmodem American avant-garde poetry through Charles Olson's critique of modern discourse.