SOURCE: Davie, Donald. “Postmodernism and Lorine Niedecker.” PN Review 18, no. 2 (November-December 1991): 43-45.

In the following essay, Davie reflects back on previous critical arguments he has made on Niedecker's “Lake Superior”.

Ten years ago, when considerations of Niedecker's poetry were few and far between, I published in PN Review a brief appreciation of her ‘Lake Superior’ under the title, ‘Lyric Minimum & Epic Scope’. Quite by accident and much to my astonishment I discover that this modest piece has been made a casus belli between me and Joseph M. Conte, in the latter's Unending Design: The Forms of Postmodern Poetry (Cornell University Press). I am used to being misunderstood, and would not bother with this if it were only a squabble between me and Joseph Conte. But Conte from the first raises the ante: my essay, he says, ‘so thoroughly undervalues and misinterprets the intentions of the “Lake Superior” series...