american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
american political poetry in the 21st century - STIBA Malang
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EQUIVOCAL AGENCY 91<br />
what Hannah Arendt discusses <strong>in</strong> her work on public policy formation.<br />
She claims that any agent is capable of form<strong>in</strong>g her op<strong>in</strong>ions <strong>in</strong><br />
consideration of o<strong>the</strong>rs’ <strong>in</strong>terests; as such, a policymaker must negotiate<br />
<strong>the</strong> differences between her <strong>in</strong>terests and “<strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>terests of <strong>the</strong><br />
group.” She implies that <strong>the</strong> failure to account for o<strong>the</strong>rs’ <strong>in</strong>terests is<br />
partly due to a “lack of imag<strong>in</strong>ation” (Between Past 241–242). When<br />
extended from policy formation to <strong>the</strong> formation of op<strong>in</strong>ions <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
social world, this notion suggests <strong>the</strong> possibility that racism,<br />
misogyny, xenophobia, and any difference constituted as conflict<br />
(ra<strong>the</strong>r than merely as difference) is partly due to a lack of imag<strong>in</strong>ation.<br />
The violence of <strong>the</strong> colonial encounter, <strong>the</strong>n, is a failure of a powerful<br />
group of people to imag<strong>in</strong>e <strong>the</strong>mselves as ano<strong>the</strong>r group of people.<br />
Imag<strong>in</strong>ation bridges cultural and <strong>political</strong> gaps, <strong>in</strong> much <strong>the</strong> same way<br />
that Eliza Rodriguez y Gibson says that Harjo’s poetics “create a rich<br />
sense of historical and spatial <strong>in</strong>terconnection across tribal and cultural<br />
l<strong>in</strong>es” (107).<br />
Harjo’s poem can be understood via <strong>the</strong> implied context of<br />
colonial encounters <strong>the</strong> world over (especially <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Americas), and<br />
her prophetic, optimistic voice is an apt transition to Derek Walcott’s<br />
“The Season of Phantasmal Peace” (The Fortunate Traveller 1981),<br />
where <strong>the</strong> context is more global. It is <strong>the</strong> most strategically and<br />
<strong>political</strong>ly comprehensive of all <strong>the</strong> poems <strong>in</strong> this chapter, and its<br />
voice <strong>the</strong> least recognizable as human. Although Walcott was<br />
awarded <strong>the</strong> Nobel Prize for Literature <strong>in</strong> 1992, two iconic critics,<br />
Harold Bloom and Helen Vendler, have been skeptical of his poetic<br />
voice and rhetorical strategies. Their comments are appropriate start<strong>in</strong>g<br />
po<strong>in</strong>ts for read<strong>in</strong>g “The Season of Phantasmal Peace” as a<br />
premier example of <strong>the</strong> strategy of equivocal agency. Bloom claims<br />
“bafflement” over whe<strong>the</strong>r Walcott has “developed a voice<br />
altoge<strong>the</strong>r his own, <strong>the</strong> mark of a major poet,” or has adopted a<br />
“composite voice of post-Yeatsian <strong>poetry</strong> <strong>in</strong> English” (1). Vendler<br />
expressed a similar sentiment about <strong>the</strong> orig<strong>in</strong>ality of Walcott’s voice<br />
shortly after <strong>the</strong> publication of The Fortunate Traveller. His voice,<br />
she wrote, “was for a long time a derivative one;” his “place,” she<br />
cont<strong>in</strong>ued, is not a poem, “but ra<strong>the</strong>r an essay <strong>in</strong> pentameters”<br />
(“Poet of Two Worlds” 25–26), presumably about colonialism. “The<br />
Season of Phantasmal Peace” renders <strong>the</strong>se criticisms, which are born<br />
from a simplified notion of <strong>in</strong>dividual genius isolated from <strong>the</strong> sociocultural<br />
and historical contexts <strong>in</strong> which a poet works, void. The<br />
poem, after all, does not utilize a recognizable first-person speak<strong>in</strong>g<br />
voice, nor does that voice hold forth as an essayist but as a visionary<br />
creat<strong>in</strong>g potential beauty from tatters.