ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book concerns the figure of the voyeur in Western literature and how the Peeping Toms mediating position between inside and outside is a major feature informing not only Carvers fiction but perhaps even more so his poetry. It focuses on the age-old tradition of the love poem. The book examines how the bodies of water and intense interest in fishing that were an intimate part of Carvers life creates self-referential structures that flow, like the figures in Arreguns paintings, as a current throughout his production. It discusses the interdisciplinary field of literature and medicine and how Carvers poems have been embraced by medical schools teaching end-of-life care and related topics. The book focuses on how Carver performs in an autopoetic environment in which poets cite, parody, and compete with each other to create the Western canon of elegy.
