Mike Chasar

Program: English Ph.D.
Began program in 2002
Area of Study: 20th century American poetry

Office: 152 EPB
E-Mail: michael-chasar@uiowa.edu
Blog: Poetry & Popular Culture

After a lifetime of secretly liking the puns, dirty limericks, rock and roll lyrics, doggerel, cheesy inspirational verses and advertising jingles of popular culture, I finally ’fessed up a few years ago and began to seriously study and write about the “lowbrow” poetries of everyday life. And, at Iowa, I’ve been strongly encouraged to pursue the intersection of cultural studies theory and poetics where such a project is possible. In the process, I’ve found that not only can we read the social significance of “bad” poetry at this juncture, but we can also productively reread “canonical” work—from Beowulf to Walt Whitman to Langston Hughes—from the vantage point of the everyday as well.

My dissertation as such focuses on popular poetry in the U.S. between WWI and WWII and ranges in topic from poetry scrapbooks and Burma-Shave billboards to the poetic wordplay of roadside advertising in the poetry of William Carlos Williams. Along these same lines, I’ve had the opportunity to co-edit with Heidi R. Bean and Adalaide Morris a recent “poetries” issue of the Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies. For some excellent examples of how scholarly work can creatively and intellectually engage with “word-slinging” of all types—from Shakespeare to Def Poetry Jam—check out that issue here. http://www.uiowa.edu/~ijcs/index.htm

I live in Iowa City with Meridith Brand and our cat Stella. When I’m not coming up with lists of bad rhymes, and when I’m not writing topical verse of my own for the local newspaper’s “Poetic License” feature, I enjoy Chinese cooking, visiting art museums, spending time in New York City, and volunteering for hunger relief organizations.

Essays

"Remembering Paul Engle." Forthcoming in The Writer's Chronicle.

“The Sounds of Black Laughter and the Harlem Renaissance: Claude McKay, Sterling Brown and Langston Hughes.” Forthcoming in American Literature 80.1 (March 2008). <http://americanliterature.dukejournals.org/cgi/pdf_extract/80/1/57>

“Introduction: poetries.” With Heidi R. Bean and Adalaide Morris. Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies 8/9 (Spring & Fall 2006): 3-9.<http://www.uiowa.edu/~ijcs/poetries/poetriesint.htm>

“A Full Nelson? Getting a Grip on Cultural Criticism of Modern American Poetry.” Word for/ Word 9 (Winter 2006). http://www.wordforword.info/vol9/Chasar.htm

“State of the Art: Dana Gioia, The National Endowment for the Arts, and the Politics of American Poetry.” Word for/ Word 5 (Winter 2004). http://www.wordforword.info/vol5/Chasar.htm

Reviews

Rev. of Songs of Ourselves: The Uses of Poetry in America, by Joan Shelley Rubin. Journal of American Studies 42.1 (April 2008).

Rev. of Would Poetry Disappear? American Verse and the Crisis of Modernity, by John Timberman Newcomb. Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 38.2 (Fall 2005): 147-149.

Rev. of Pax Atomica by Campbell McGrath. Valparaiso Poetry Review 7.1 (Fall/Winter 2005-
2006). http://www.valpo.edu/english/vpr/chasarreviewmcgrath.html

Rev. of Buyways: Billboards, Automobiles, and the American Landscape, by Catherine Gudis.
The Iowa Review Web 7.1 (August 2005). http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/mainpages/new/aug05/chasar.html

Rev. of The Orchard, by Brigit Pegeen Kelly. Rain Taxi Review of Books 9.3 (Fall 2004): 22.

Rev. of What is this Thing Called Love? by Kim Addonizio. Rain Taxi Review of Books Online
Edition Fall 2004.http://www.raintaxi.com/online/2004fall/addonizio.shtml

Rev. of Guys Like Us: Citing Masculinity in Cold War Poetics, by Michael Davidson. The Iowa
Review Web 6.3 (Sept. 2004). http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/feature/nickm/index.html#

Other

"Seeing Things" & "Retho." Mudlark Flash No. 46 (May 2008)
http://www.unf.edu/mudlark/flashes/chasar.html

"Conches on Christmas." Poetry 186.5 (September 2005): 398-99.
http://www.poetrymagazine.org/magazine/0905/poem_171983.html

Affiliations and Links

University of Iowa 'Be Remarkable' Profile
http://www.uiowa.edu/be-remarkable/portfolio/people/chasar-m.html
"Poetry Scrapbooks: An Online Archive
http://www.obermanncenter.com/scholars/mikechasar/
Poetic License
http://press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=OPINION06
Modern Language Association
www.mla.org
Midwest Modern Language Association
http://www.uiowa.edu/~mmla/
Table to Table
http://www.table2table-ic.org/index.htm
Graduate College Profile
http://www.grad.uiowa.edu/profiles/students/chasar.htm
University of Iowa Center for the Book
http://www.uiowa.edu/~ctrbook/index.shtml
Oxford Anthology of Modern American Poetry Online Companion
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/
The Walt Whitman Archive
http://www.whitmanarchive.org/