Dani Spinosa takes up anarchism’s power as a cultural and artistic ideology, rather than as a political philosophy, with a persistent emphasis on the common. She demonstrates how postanarchism offers a useful theoretical context for poetry that is not explicitly political—specifically for the contemporary experimental poem with its characteristic challenges to subjectivity, representation, authorial power, and conventional constructions of the reader-text relationship. Her case studies of sixteen texts make a bold move toward politicizing readers and imbuing literary theory with an activist praxis—a sharp hope. This is a provocative volume for those interested in contemporary poetics, experimental literatures, and the digital humanities.

Case Studies: Jim Andrews, Christian Bök, Mez Breeze, John Cage, Andy Campbell, Robert Duncan, Kenneth Goldsmith, Susan Howe, Jackson Mac Low, Erín Moure [Erin Mouré], Harryette Mullen, bpNichol, Vanessa Place, Juliana Spahr, Brian Kim Stefans, W. Mark Sutherland, and Darren Wershler.

Dani Spinosa's profile page

• Short-listed, Book Design of the Year | Alberta Book Publishing Awards, Book Publishers Association of Alberta

“Dani Spinosa makes compelling arguments for a post-anarchist literary theory that sheds light on politicized reading practices fostered by both innovative print-based and digital poets. … Anarchists in the Academy reveals that the effort to find new ways of apprehending electronic literature, machine writing, and reader engagement is a fertile endeavour that offers rich rewards, and this book will certainly be an indispensable resource for scholars interested in the politics of reading in an ever-expanding digital culture."

University of Toronto Quarterly, Summer 2020

"Anarchists in the Academy is required reading for anyone in the field of contemporary and experimental poetry and the digital humanities."

Weldon Hunter