Identity Poetics

"Queer theory," asserts Linda Garber, "alternately buries and vilifies lesbian feminism, missing its valuable insights and ignoring its rich contributions." Rejecting the either/or choice between lesbianism and queer theory, she favors an inclusive approach that defies current factionalism. In an eloquent challenge to the privileging of queer theory in the academy, Garber calls for recognition of the historical—and intellectually significant—role of lesbian poets as theorists of lesbian identity and activism. The connections, Garber shows, are most clearly seen when looking at the pivotal work of working-class lesbians/lesbians of color whose articulations of multiple, simultaneous identity positions and activist politics both belong to lesbian feminism and presage queer theory. Identity Poetics includes a critical overview of recent historical writing about the women's and lesbian-feminist movements of the 1970s; discussions of the works of Judy Grahn, Pat Parker, Audre Lorde, Adrienne Rich, and Gloria Anzaldúa; and, finally, a chapter on the rise and hegemony of queer theory within lesbigay studies.

The book reveals the historical change in the function of the generic form of the fairy tale: at the beginning of the twentieth century, fairy tales are no longer written or read for their stimulus to the imagination or their nostalgia towards past times, but with a political end in view: to define a nation’s identity meant to justify and support claims to a unitary state (Romania) or an independent state (Ireland). As such, this book investigates the interweave of poetics and politics at the time of the rise of modernist nationalism at the margins of Europe.

John D. Kerkering's study examines the literary history of racial and national identity in nineteenth-century America. Kerkering argues that writers such as DuBois, Lanier, Simms, and Scott used poetic effects to assert the distinctiveness of certain groups in a diffuse social landscape. Kerkering explores poetry's formal properties, its sound effects, as they intersect with the issues of race and nation. He shows how formal effects, ranging from meter and rhythm to alliteration and melody, provide these writers with evidence of a collective identity, whether national or racial. Through this shared reliance on formal literary effects, national and racial identities, Kerkering shows, are related elements of a single literary history. This is the story of how poetic effects helped to define national identities in Anglo-America as a step toward helping to define racial identities within the United States. This highly original study will command a wide audience of Americanists.

This is the first book to discuss in detail how rap music is put together musically and how it contributes to the formation of cultural identities for both artists and audiences. It also argues that current skeptical attitudes toward music analysis in popular music studies are misplaced and need to be reconsidered if cultural studies are to treat seriously the social force of rap music, popular musics, and music in general. Drawing extensively on recent scholarship in popular music studies, cultural theory, communications, critical theory, and musicology, Krims redefines 'music theory' as meaning simply 'theory about music', in which musical poetics (the study of how musical sound is deployed) may play a crucial role when its claims are contextualized and demystified. Theorizing local and global geographies of rap, Krims discusses at length the music of Ice Cube, the Goodie MoB, KRS-One, Dutch group the Spookrijders, and Canadian Cree rapper Bannock.

This work revolves round the analysis of Jack Kerouac's complex identity and his main artistic inspirations. Even though the writer was born in Lowell, MA, he was raised in a Franco-American family with strong bonds with the Quebec region. The resultant split identity led to deep existential doubts that Kerouac was never able to overcome. However, the awareness of his cultural dichotomy proved extremely important for his own work. Indeed, the Beat author was able to reach an original poetics which was inspired by both American and French writers. Despite Kerouac's innovative style and writing method, an analysis of the artists who influenced his work could help contextualize and better understand his literary and linguistic genius.

The essays in Inciting Poetics provide provocative answers to the book's opening question, "What are poetics now?" Authored by some of the most important contemporary poets and critics, the essays present new theoretical and practical approaches to poetry and poetics that address current topics and approaches in the field as well as provide fresh readings of a number of canonical poets. The four sections--"What is Poetics?," "Critical Interventions," "Cross-Cultural Imperatives," and "Digital, Capital, and Institutional Frames"--create a basis on which both experienced readers and newcomers can build an understanding of how to think and write about poetry. The diverse voices throughout the collection are both informative and accessible and offer a rich exploration of multiple approaches to thinking and writing about poetry today.

An exploration of the burgeoning field of Anglophone Asian diaspora poetry, this book draws on the thematic concerns of Hong Kong, Asian-American and British Asian poets from the wider Chinese or East Asian diasporic culture to offer a transnational understanding of the complex notions of home, displacement and race in a globalised world. Located within current discourse surrounding Asian poetry, postcolonial and migrant writing, and bridging the fields of literary and cultural criticism with author interviews, this book provides close readings on established and emerging Chinese diasporic poets' work by incorporating the writers' own reflections on their craft through interviews with some of those featured. In doing so, Jennifer Wong explores the usefulness and limitations of existing labels and categories in reading the works of selected poets from specific racial, socio-cultural, linguistic environments and gender backgrounds, including Bei Dao, Li-Young Lee, Marilyn Chin, Hannah Lowe and Sarah Howe, Nina Mingya Powles and Mary Jean Chan. Incorporating scholarship from both the East and the West, Wong demonstrates how these poets' experimentation with poetic language and forms serve to challenge the changing notions of homeland, family, history and identity, offering new evaluations of contemporary diasporic voices.

A survey of the empowering poetry of politically active women in El Salvador, South Africa, and the United States.