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Interview subject terms
The notes field identifies, through a set of descriptive words and phrases, the subjects discussed in interviews with Ashbery. These subjects refer only to statements made by Ashbery, not by the interviewer, although the guidance of the interviewer will, naturally, be reflected in Ashbery's responses. The subjects are presented in the order in which they are discussed in the interview; however, if a subject comes up at two different points in the discussion, it will not be listed twice. Due to the specific and idiosyncratic nature of the topics Ashbery tends to discuss when being interviewed, the compilers of the catalogue have found it most efficient not to use the Library of Congress' standard subject terms to try to describe them, but rather to work with the idiosyncrasies of our subject. We have attempted to standardize the terminology used for this purpose in order to make it as intuitive as possible and to make searches of the catalogue more productive. When Ashbery discusses a particular person or work in detail, the name or title is given. Otherwise, the common, standardized terms used to describe the topics addressed by Ashbery in interviews include:
Ashbery's painting career (refers to Ashbery's various experiences, most often in his pre-college years, working as a visual artist)
audience (refers to Ashbery's readership)
automatic writing (refers to the formal practice of the Surrealists, as well as to certain of Ashbery's descriptions of his poetic process)
childhood (refers to general anecdotes or reminiscences regarding Ashbery's early life in upstate New York; may include memories of Ashbery's family, particularly his grandfather and his grandfather's home in Rochester; may also include recollections of early romances, Deerfield Academy, etc.; particular discussions may be assigned more specific subject terms)
career as a poet (income, finances) (refers to discussions of poetry as a source of income)
confessional / autobiographical poetry (refers to discussions of the poet's personal life in his or her work)
conscious v. unconscious in poetry (refers to discussions of the roles played by Ashbery's conscious and unconscious [or subconscious] when he writes; also refers to general discussion of the roles played by the conscious and unconscious [or subconscious] in understanding poetry)
criticism (refers to analytic discussions of Ashbery's work, as well as to negative reactions to Ashbery's work)
difficulty (refers to critics' and readers' most popular argument against Ashbery's work; use "difficulty" when searching for Ashbery's statements on the obscurity, ambiguity, incomprehensibility, challenge, or enigma of his work)
distraction / interruption (refers to the effect that certain aspects of Ashbery's immediate environment may have on the writing of a poem; often includes discussion of John Cage)
English language and France (refers to Ashbery's discussion of the importance of the English language to his work, with particular regard to the time he spent in Paris writing The Tennis Court Oath)
everyday language (refers to the importance of American English and colloquialism in the work of Ashbery and others)
fame (refers to general discussions of Ashbery's reputation, as well as to discussions of the effect of awards and audience on Ashbery's work)
first language experiment (refers to one of Ashbery's pivotal childhood experiences, centering around the word "regret")
found language (refers to Ashbery's poetic practice of incorporating text or speech encountered in various situations and formats, including popular media and overheard conversation)
Harold Bloom (anxiety of influence) (refers to Harold Bloom's critical opinions regarding Ashbery, and particularly to Bloom's theories about poetic influences on Ashbery)
influence (refers to the effect of others on Ashbery and to the effect of Ashbery on others)
line breaks (refers to discussions of the importance of or the meaning implicit in the divisions of lines in poetry)
Louis Untermeyer anthology (refers to Ashbery's first, pivotal experience with contemporary poetry)
New York School (refers to a group of poets that came together in New York City in the 1950s, including Ashbery as well as Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, Frank O'Hara and James Schuyler)
poem as mental microcosm (refers to all discussions of the way that Ashbery's poems reflect, mimic, resemble, respond to, or are thought processes )
poetic form (refers to a discussion of formal poetic structures in Ashbery's work; for example, the sonnet, the dizain, the pantoum, the sestina)
poetic process (refers to Ashbery's writing of poetry, what he does when he writes or revises, habits he has, what happens to him when writing)
poetic program (refers to Ashbery's motivation for writing poetry, what he hopes to achieve in his poems, his idea of what poetry should do or be)
Poetry magazine plagiarism debacle (refers to the publication of Ashbery's work in Poetry by a classmate at Deerfield Academy under the pseudonym Joel Michael Symington, without Ashbery's prior knowledge or consent)
public v. private (refers to a basic, crucial paradox in Ashbery's poetry wherein privacy and individuality are understood as shared and universal)
Quiz Kids (refers to Ashbery's childhood appearance on a popular trivia game show)
revision (refers to Ashbery's process of making changes to his work)
shifting pronouns (refers to Ashbery's tendency to change subject or object personal pronouns within a work)
triple crown (refers to Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror's receipt of three of the top American literary awards: the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award)
typewriting (refers to discussions of the history and significance of the typewriter in Ashbery's writing)
variation within Ashbery's poetry (refers to Ashbery's explanations of the changing forms and focus of his poetry, from collection to collection)
writing about art (refers to Ashbery's career reviewing visual art for magazines and newspapers such as the International Herald-Tribune, ARTnews, New York, and Newsweek; use "writing about art" when searching for information about art criticism, including writing about architecture, film and the decorative arts)
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