French Literature Reviews - 2026
Y. di Manno, Objets d'Amérique
Poetry and Poetics
Yves di Manno, Objets d'Amérique
José Corti, American series, 2009, 221 pages
- ISBN: 978-2-7143-1007-1
- 21 euros
Since the late 1970s—and his premonitory translation of William Carlos Williams's Paterson—North American poetry has held a special place in Yves di Manno's work and thought: undoubtedly because it made it possible at the time to define a principle, a goal, and even new modes of composition, far removed from our own tradition. “A poetry close to archaeology, in a way, attentive to the scattered history of humankind and the forms found to inscribe it within an elusive duration.” Objets d'Amérique offers a personal journey across this vast hidden continent. It features studies on W.C. Williams's visual prosody and Jack Spicer's serial poem, an introduction to Ezra Pound's Cantos, and a meditation on ethnopoetics. But it also includes, inserted here under the banner of active critique, several translated pages of the "Objectivists" (George Oppen, Louis Zukofsky), excerpts from Robert Duncan's The Opening of the Field, an oracle by Jerome Rothenberg, an image by Rachel Blau DuPlessis... The book opens with a series of self-portraits evoking the author's ties to these works and the role of translation in his own journey. It concludes with a retrospective text, The Hamstrung Epic, which traces the major milestones of this poetic revolution, from the late 19th century to the dawn of the 21st.
The Author:
Born in 1954, Yves di Manno has published around twenty books and several translations. Since 1994, he has directed the Poésie/Flammarion series.
Table of Contents:
Prologue: X Self-Portraits
At the Turn of the 1930s: 3 Poets
William Carlos Williams: The Fall of Winter
George Oppen: Discrete Series
Louis Zukofsky: 3 Poems, followed by "A" 3
Late Spring
An Analogical Montage
Robert Duncan: 8 Poems from The Opening of the Field
The Dictation of the Outside
George Oppen: X Poems 99
The Nantes Interview (with David Christoffel)
Entrance of the Shamans
Jerome Rothenberg: An Oracle for Delphi
followed by Rothenberg: a postscript
The Hamstrung Epic
Rachel Blau DuPlessis: Persistent Image
Bibliographical Note
The study of North American poetry has long been a significant focus for French writers and translators seeking alternatives to domestic literary traditions. By engaging with movements such as Objectivism and the work of poets like Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, scholars often explore how these forms challenge conventional notions of duration and historical inscription. Readers interested in the history of 20th-century American verse and the practice of literary translation may find this collection relevant.
Objets d'Amérique includes studies on W.C. Williams's visual prosody, Jack Spicer's serial poem, Ezra Pound's Cantos, and ethnopoetics, alongside translations of George Oppen, Louis Zukofsky, Robert Duncan, and Jerome Rothenberg. The book features self-portraits concerning the author's ties to these works and concludes with The Hamstrung Epic, a text tracing milestones of poetic revolution from the late 19th century to the 21st.