Hoagland On Narrative Poetry

A friend passed this link on an article by Tony Hoagland talking about what he says is a distrust of narrative today, especially he says among young MFA's who are more into experimental disassociated modes. One of the reasons he "blames" for this trend is a distrust of the confessional as well, mainly due to what he seems to say was way too much narcissism in the past.

It's an interesting discussion I think.   For my own work, I'm interesting in both narrative and disassociation.   In either cast it seems to me that it is important to make the poem interesting, which means not purely narrative or completely dissociative.  Of course interesting is subjective, but the first thing is to at least make it interesting to yourself I would suggest. Perhaps it is is important to have an appreciation for both modes in order to appreciate good poetry in either category.

I also wonder if this is some of the normal pendulum swinging of fads and trends.  That some of what he says may already be out dated as the newest young MFA's react against the recent trends, perhaps embracing the narrative in new and fresh ways.  Perhaps the two first examples in Hoagland's article are more harbingers of a coming trend rather than being exceptions as Hoagland seems to indicate.