In 1972 Bernadette Mayer began this project as an aid to psychological counseling, writing in parallel journals so that, as she wrote in one (in bed, on subways, at parties, etc.), her psychiatrist read the other. Using colored pens to color-code emotions, she recorded dreams, events, memories, and reflections in a language at once free-ranging and precise-a work that creates its own poetics. She sought a workable code, or shorthand, for the transcription of every event, every motion, every transition of her own mind and to perform this process of translation on herself in the interest of evolving an innovative, inquiring language. Studying Hunger Journals registers this intention within a body of poetry John Ashbery has called magnificent.
- ISBN10 1581771207
- ISBN13 9781581771206
- Publish Date 15 June 2011
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Station Hill Press,U.S.
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 460
- Language English