The Decadent Movement is a book-length suite of poems that spins backward in time through the early days of parenthood and the preceding nine months of pregnancy. Beginning a year after childbirth in the harried throes of marriage and parenting, the collection proceeds toward its finale "Minus Time," which marvels at death's near-identical twin – that infinite period of nonexistence that precedes each new life. From the opening poem "Afterword," each dated poem slides backward in time, with the poem "Hinge" at the manuscript's midpoint spoken from the moment of childbirth.
This unraveling of a predicament by playing it in reverse – "Muybridged / out so anyone could see, framed, a woman / running for her life" – allows for rigorously honest accounting of mixed feelings about motherhood and its accompanying physical and psychic changes, detached from the readymade tropes of the "pregnancy plot."
The Decadent Movement is a book about the fear of loss (of sexual personhood, bodily self-determination, the ability to write, and the license to be headlong and volatile). Yet it is also about the need to insist on new terms of engagement with those we love, new languages of willfulness and desire.
- 118 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub
About this book
Information
Subtopic
PoetryIndex
LiteratureTable of contents
- Cover Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Afterword
- Three and a Dog
- Teaching Speech
- Film Maudit
- In Flower
- Writing and Nursing
- Playoffs
- First Cut
- March 25, 2023
- Party
- [In a set of boxes]
- A Mother Is a Paperweight
- Hinge
- A Pregnant Woman Is a Scarecrow
- Street Cleaning Day
- Against Maternity
- A.’s Day
- 24 Weeks
- Granville
- East of the Fires
- Still
- Seven Weeks
- The Feminine Ending in Prosody
- 2003 snapshot found in the nightstand at my parents’ house
- Addendum
- A Pregnant Woman Is a Comet
- You
- Simple
- Keeping House
- Minus Time
- Notes
- Acknowledgments
- Back Cover
Trusted by 375,005 students
Access to over 1.5 million titles for a fair monthly price.
Study more efficiently using our study tools.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, you can cancel anytime from the Subscription tab in your account settings on the Perlego website. Your subscription will stay active until the end of your current billing period. Learn how to cancel your subscription
No, books cannot be downloaded as external files, such as PDFs, for use outside of Perlego. However, you can download books within the Perlego app for offline reading on mobile or tablet. Learn how to download books offline
Perlego offers two plans: Essential and Complete
- Essential is ideal for learners and professionals who enjoy exploring a wide range of subjects. Access the Essential Library with 800,000+ trusted titles and best-sellers across business, personal growth, and the humanities. Includes unlimited reading time and Standard Read Aloud voice.
- Complete: Perfect for advanced learners and researchers needing full, unrestricted access. Unlock 1.5M+ books across hundreds of subjects, including academic and specialized titles. The Complete Plan also includes advanced features like Premium Read Aloud and Research Assistant.
We are an online textbook subscription service, where you can get access to an entire online library for less than the price of a single book per month. With over 1.5 million books across 990+ topics, we’ve got you covered! Learn about our mission
Look out for the read-aloud symbol on your next book to see if you can listen to it. The read-aloud tool reads text aloud for you, highlighting the text as it is being read. You can pause it, speed it up and slow it down. Learn more about Read Aloud
Yes! You can use the Perlego app on both iOS and Android devices to read anytime, anywhere — even offline. Perfect for commutes or when you’re on the go.
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app
Please note we cannot support devices running on iOS 13 and Android 7 or earlier. Learn more about using the app
Yes, you can access The Decadent Movement by Laura Kolbe in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Poetry. We have over 1.5 million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.