Books : Arts of the Possible: Essays and Conversations
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by: Adrienne Rich
Amazon.com's Price: $23.95 Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 1 to 4 weeks
Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 811.54
EAN: 9780393050455
ISBN: 0393050459
Label: W. W. Norton & Company
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 2001-04
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Sales Rank: 774440
Studio: W. W. Norton & Company
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Editorial Review:
Book Description:
These essays trace a distinguished writer's engagement with her time, her arguments with herself and others. 'I am a poet who knows the social power of poetry, a United States citizen who knows herself irrevocably tangled in her society's hopes, arrogance, and despair,' Adrienne Rich writes. The essays in Arts of the Possible search for possibilities beyond a compromised, degraded system, seeking to imagine something else. They call on the fluidity of the imagination, from poetic vision to social justice, from the badlands of political demoralization to an art that might wound, that may open scars when engaged in its work, but will finally suture and not tear apart. This volume collects Rich's essays from the last decade of the twentieth century, including four earlier essays, as well as several conversations that go further than the usual interview. Also included is her essay explaining her reasons for declining the National Medal for the Arts.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Intellectually engaging
I've always admired Adrienne Rich as someone with integrity and seriousness and intellectual commitment. I don't speak feminism as an obscenity, as one of the previous commentators said most Americans do. This book grapples with important themes in the work of Adrienne Rich. Nothing is simple: white men aren't the enemy and Rich doesn't view feminism simplistically. Rich elaborates on important topics of race, class, gender and religion. I think it's funny that the same previous commentator ... Read More
Rating: - Delicately created and stimulating
If you have ever thought about the relationship between art and politics, or art and social justice, Adrienne Rich's collection of essays and conversations is a must read.
In "When We Dead Awaken" (Chapt 1) - Interweaving prose and poetry, Rich demonstrates how she slowly came to terms with her identity as a female poet - a process she termed, "awakening of dead or sleeping consciousness." A process that would seem vital for any oppressed group, Rich explains how after years of sleepwalking, ... Read More
Rating: - Rich is a national treasure
Please ignore the review above. It's author seems to have missed thepoint entirely. This book is essential reading, as all of Rich's books are. One of our greatest writers.
Rating:  - Feminism's bad name: Adrienne Rich
Every once in a while I wonder why, in this age, people still utter the word "feminist" as though it were an obscenity. Then I pick up one of Adrienne Rich's books, and I think, Oh yeah. That's why.
Arts of the Possible purports to be a text on aesthetics, but it winds up more of a text on Adrienne Rich. The "essays" include "Notes" for several talks she's given, and unlike most essays titled "Notes," these really are just her notes, without any effort to ... Read More
Rating: - Feminism's bad name: Adrienne Rich
Every once in a while I wonder why, in this age, people still utter the word "feminist" as though it were an obscenity. Then I pick up one of Adrienne Rich's books, and I think, Oh yeah. That's why.
Arts of the Possible purports to be a text on aesthetics, but it winds up more of a text on Adrienne Rich. The "essays" include "Notes" for several talks she's given, and unlike most essays titled "Notes," these really are just her notes, without any effort to flesh ... Read More
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