THE ODICY

Abstract

The title of The Odicy refers to the epic story of Ulysses, but it also indicates another term, the single word "theodicy," which Leibniz coined to describe a vindication, in the face of evil, of the goodness and fairness of a supreme being or creator. The Odicy is organized around a set of interrelated concerns about how poetry can relate, for example, to the increasing weaponization of the American citizenry, how it can relate to the various American styles of religious fundamentalism, and especially how poetry, an ancient and potentially sustainable form of artistic production, can confront the prospect of ecological collapse.