The Poetry of Raymond Carver ― Against the Current

Best known as one of the great short story writers of the twentieth century, Raymond Carver also published several volumes of poetry and considered himself as much a poet as a fiction writer. Sandra Lee Kleppe combines comparative analysis with an in-depth examination of Carvera€?s poems, making a case for the quality of Carvera€?s poetic output and showing the central role Carvera€?s pursuit of poetry played in his career as a writer. Carver constructed his own organic literary system of 'autopoetics,' a concept connected to a paradigm shift in our understanding of the inter-relatedness of biological and cultural systems. This idea is seen as informing Carvera€?s entire production, and a distinguishing feature of Kleppea€?s book is its contextualization of Carvera€?s poetry within the complex literary and scientific systems that influenced his development as a writer. Kleppe addresses the common themes and intertextual links between Carvera€?s poetry and short story careers, situates Carvera€?s poetry within the love poem tradition, explores the connections between neurology and poetic memories, and examines Carvera€?s use of the elegy genre within the context of his terminal illness. Tellingly, Carvera€?s poetry, which has aroused slight interest among literary scholars, is frequently taught to medical students. This testimony to the interdisciplinary implications of Carvera€?s work suggests the appropriateness of Kleppea€?s culminating discussion of Carvera€?s work as a bridge between the fields of literature and medicine.

Sandra Lee Kleppe is Professor of English at Hedmark University College, Norway.