Writing for the reader? The politics of selfhood in the work of Susan Howe, Lyn Hejinian and Leslie Scalapino
Writing for the reader? The politics of selfhood in the work of Susan Howe, Lyn Hejinian and Leslie Scalapino
The central aim of this work is to examine the significance that has been attributed to the construction of authoriality in contemporary poetics. The thesis examines the author in the text as a site upon which literary critics have been able to debate the political significance of the literary itself. The thesis examines the differing strategies which three American women poets have formulated for negotiating one specific instance of this controversy, and in doing so examines the problems attending the connection of feminist literary production with notions of political agency.
The three poets examined in the thesis have been most readily allied with the school of avant-garde American poetry that has come to be known as 'Language' writing. One of Langauge writing's foundational tenets has been that its textual 'difficulty' demands an active or sceptical reading practice, which allows the reader to become oppostionally engaged. I contend that this principle assumes that reading, without the intervention of the 'difficult' text, is a passive act, and suggest that an account of cultural consumption, which emphasises the complex dynamics between reading and writing positions, is in danger of being overlooked. The thesis centrally aims to explore such a dynamic by emphasising the politics of the various subject positions created in this writing, and examining what they imply for a reading practice. My methodology involves critically analysing the readings hitherto provided for these poets and making apparent the limiting assumptions that they rely upon. I then propose an alternative reading of each poet's relationship to cultural authority, as it is mediated through the constructions of selfhood and writing.
University of Southampton
Marsh, Nicola Eileen
186f8e5e-cfb0-48a2-97fe-37b85989778e
1999
Marsh, Nicola Eileen
186f8e5e-cfb0-48a2-97fe-37b85989778e
Marsh, Nicola Eileen
(1999)
Writing for the reader? The politics of selfhood in the work of Susan Howe, Lyn Hejinian and Leslie Scalapino.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
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Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
The central aim of this work is to examine the significance that has been attributed to the construction of authoriality in contemporary poetics. The thesis examines the author in the text as a site upon which literary critics have been able to debate the political significance of the literary itself. The thesis examines the differing strategies which three American women poets have formulated for negotiating one specific instance of this controversy, and in doing so examines the problems attending the connection of feminist literary production with notions of political agency.
The three poets examined in the thesis have been most readily allied with the school of avant-garde American poetry that has come to be known as 'Language' writing. One of Langauge writing's foundational tenets has been that its textual 'difficulty' demands an active or sceptical reading practice, which allows the reader to become oppostionally engaged. I contend that this principle assumes that reading, without the intervention of the 'difficult' text, is a passive act, and suggest that an account of cultural consumption, which emphasises the complex dynamics between reading and writing positions, is in danger of being overlooked. The thesis centrally aims to explore such a dynamic by emphasising the politics of the various subject positions created in this writing, and examining what they imply for a reading practice. My methodology involves critically analysing the readings hitherto provided for these poets and making apparent the limiting assumptions that they rely upon. I then propose an alternative reading of each poet's relationship to cultural authority, as it is mediated through the constructions of selfhood and writing.
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Published date: 1999
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Local EPrints ID: 463701
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/463701
PURE UUID: 4461cb77-a710-4136-93fe-f2f6c412aba3
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 20:55
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 19:05
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Author:
Nicola Eileen Marsh
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