Poetry and the Inapprehensible: A Genealogy

Abstract: Through close readings of William Langland, John Keats, Anne Carson, and Ben Lerner, this essay describes an enigmatic effect in and of English literature. Proposing Christian apophaticism as both source and analogue of literary styles, the essay introduces the concept of "apophatic effects," references to a literary realm not merely virtual but definitively inaccessible to perception. The imaginative leap that modern scholars value in English literature, epitomized by Keats's speaker's reflections on the urn, is a form of theological thinking that has forgotten where it came from. The essay touches on the relationship between literature and theology, the formation of the discipline of English, the definition of lyric, and Keats's influence on contemporary North American avant-garde poetry.