Charles Bernstein’s work as poet, critic, collaborator, educator and editor can be read as a life-long campaign to introduce and affirm poetry’s position in the public sphere. He is associated primarily with the emergence of a poetic tendency known as L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry (also referred to as language writing) on the American East and West coasts during the late seventies. With poet Bruce Andrews he co-founded and co-edited the journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E in New York, which ran from 1978-1981. Early language writing can be characterised as a poetry which frequently works in terms of diminished reference, questioning language’s unequivocal claim as a finite medium of representation. The disruption of syntax, narrative and the foregrounding

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First published 28 October 2009

Citation: Williams, Nerys. "Charles Bernstein". The Literary Encyclopedia. 28 October 2009.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12103, accessed 21 November 2009.]