Publisher's Synopsis
Poetry. With vivid language that denies easily attained unambiguous and unlayered emotion, the pieces in (NEVERTHELESS ENJOYMENT examine and reexamine what satisfaction means through the lens of intimate experience. From `slumps in the middle where history is, ' to `the drab-colored female being more of a challenge, ' Elizabeth Bryant portrays details of the human condition in surprising and unsettling terms. Central to this work of serial prose poetry is the Lacanian psychoanalytic concept `jouissance, ' which is oftentimes loosely translated as `enjoyment.' Bryant uses the word to convey not only pleasure, joy, achievement and satisfaction, but also fixation, difficulty, obstruction and conflict. This nuanced volume conveys the sense that a precise understanding of jouissance is elusive, and may be fully perceived only in hindsight. Showing the influence of writers such as Lyn Hejinian, Leslie Scalapino and Carla Harryman, Elizabeth Bryant's direct prose provides evidence of an ever-present life force that is at once ineffable and brutally powerful--Gian Lombar
