Abstract: The development of contemporary Jewish American poetry is largely based on the dialog between Jewish writing and modernist legacy. Starting from a new social reality, contemporary poets situate their Jewish identity in the practice of modernist poetics and the ideology behind it for scrutiny, negotiation, and exchange in order to formulate the ideolectical writing of contemporary Jewish American poetry. This article focuses on two dialogs, one between Allen Ginsberg and Whitmanian popular modernist legacy, and another between Charles Bernstein and Poundian modernism, so as to tease out the theory and practice of contemporary Jewish American poetics, explore its “ideolectical” writing, and analyze these poets' personality-orientedness and “ideologically informed nonstandard language practice.”

Key words: Jewish American poetry, ideolectical writing, contemporary poetry, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bernstein