“The end of friendship with self alone”: Autobiographical Erasures in John Ashbery’s “Fragment”

ArgumentThe poetry of John Ashbery is deceptively autobiographical. This apparently simple statement draws the critic’s attention to the much commented upon disjunctions characteristic of Ashbery’s poetic matter and manner, premising them upon an essential rift that splits open the integrity of the subject; such an evaluation of his poetry has consequently been reiterated in various guises by several critics. Chief among these is John Shoptaw, whose book-length study of the poet relies throug...