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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atrocities she writes about. Even so, Forché’s stylistic transition<br />
between The Country Between Us (1981) and The Angel of History<br />
(1994) 9 suggests that Forché understood <strong>the</strong> shortcom<strong>in</strong>gs of <strong>the</strong> former<br />
volume’s first-person, lyric narratives depict<strong>in</strong>g her experience.<br />
In <strong>the</strong> endnotes to The Angel of History, Forché writes that <strong>the</strong><br />
poems <strong>the</strong>re<strong>in</strong> are “not about experiences,” but a “ga<strong>the</strong>r<strong>in</strong>g of utterances”<br />
that “issue from my own encounter with <strong>the</strong> events of <strong>the</strong><br />
<strong>century</strong> but do not represent ‘it.’ ” Her earlier style, moreover, has<br />
“given way” to a <strong>poetry</strong> that is “polyphonic, broken, haunted, and <strong>in</strong><br />
ru<strong>in</strong>s, with no possibility of restoration” (81). These endnotes suggest<br />
that Forché was likely affected by criticisms like Palmer’s <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> years<br />
after <strong>the</strong> publication of her El Salvador poems. Fur<strong>the</strong>r, her explicit<br />
concern with <strong>the</strong> representation of experience and <strong>the</strong> use of multiple<br />
voices and fragments po<strong>in</strong>ts to an abid<strong>in</strong>g problem with her agency as<br />
poet. When she writes that her previous style has “given way” to this<br />
new one, it is easy to notice <strong>the</strong> lack of l<strong>in</strong>guistic agency <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> shift.<br />
She has effectively given up control over events as well as her primary<br />
voice of experience; <strong>in</strong> do<strong>in</strong>g so, her aes<strong>the</strong>tic beg<strong>in</strong>s to dovetail with<br />
Palmer’s. In his review of The Angel of History, Jon Thompson asks a<br />
question that plagues “Sun,” Forché’s work, 10 and many <strong>political</strong><br />
poets and <strong>the</strong>ir critics: “at what po<strong>in</strong>t does <strong>the</strong> witness<strong>in</strong>g of<br />
witnessed—and unwitnessed—human catastrophe pass from poetic<br />
and <strong>political</strong> necessity to <strong>the</strong> exploitation of <strong>the</strong> horror for dramatic<br />
effect?” (7). This question is important to ask, but <strong>the</strong> level of discomfort<br />
matters more. If a work of art makes us uncomfortable, it<br />
may be due to its exploitation of horror, but it also may simply mean<br />
that images of violence and atrocity should make us uncomfortable<br />
regardless of how <strong>the</strong>y are presented. They should make us question<br />
our roles—as citizens, as consumers, as voters—<strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> policies and<br />
power structures that enable poverty, war, and violence. They also<br />
force us to question <strong>the</strong> voices, strategies, and effectiveness of <strong>political</strong><br />
<strong>poetry</strong>. I believe that poems of experiential and equivocal agency<br />
are important, if divergent, types of engaged writ<strong>in</strong>g; both k<strong>in</strong>ds of<br />
poetic agency, moreover, can be viewed as romanticiz<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> poet’s<br />
role, and both can be seen as <strong>in</strong>terrogat<strong>in</strong>g that very role, but <strong>in</strong> starkly<br />
different voices.<br />
Particular Equivocal Agency<br />
EQUIVOCAL AGENCY 97<br />
The differences between comprehensive and particular strategies of<br />
equivocal agency are subtle and will be teased out <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> follow<strong>in</strong>g<br />
examples. The primary difference is context. While poems with