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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124 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
and pressures bil<strong>in</strong>gual poets face from a literary culture that often<br />
determ<strong>in</strong>es a poem’s acceptability on <strong>the</strong> basis of its relationship to an<br />
illusory English-only tradition. In his account of <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>cident, Sáenz<br />
writes that Brodsky told him to “keep foreign languages out of [his]<br />
poems, s<strong>in</strong>ce [he] was work<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> an ‘English tradition.’ ” Accord<strong>in</strong>g<br />
to Sáenz, shortly <strong>the</strong>reafter Brodsky “recite[d] a poem with a Lat<strong>in</strong><br />
phrase <strong>in</strong> it.” Sáenz concludes that Lat<strong>in</strong>, Greek, and French have<br />
“an esteemed place <strong>in</strong> American letters”—and we see evidence of this<br />
<strong>in</strong> Eliot’s and Pound’s work—and that Brodsky’s real problem was<br />
with Spanish. “Clearly,” Sáenz writes, “some languages are more<br />
foreign than o<strong>the</strong>rs” (524).<br />
Brodsky’s apparent disda<strong>in</strong> for Spanish as well as his uphold<strong>in</strong>g of<br />
an “English tradition” ignore some fundamental realities. There is no<br />
unbroken U.S. “English tradition” handed down from poet to poet.<br />
There are many English traditions <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> United States. A critic<br />
could ostensibly trace various strands of poetic tradition: Whitman–<br />
Williams–Olson–G<strong>in</strong>sberg–Creeley–Baraka; Dick<strong>in</strong>son–Pound–<br />
Snyder–Charles Wright; Stevens–Ashbery–Merw<strong>in</strong>–Strand–Graham;<br />
Longfellow–Frost–Roethke–Kum<strong>in</strong>; McKay–Hughes–Brooks–Clifton–<br />
Dove; Bishop–Lowell–Plath–Berryman–Olds; and Tillie Olsen– Edw<strong>in</strong><br />
Rolfe–Rukeyser–Levertov–Rich–Forché. Even <strong>the</strong>se are <strong>in</strong>complete,<br />
contentious, and tenuous. Do you trace “tradition” on <strong>the</strong> basis of aes<strong>the</strong>tics,<br />
style, <strong>the</strong>me, subject matter, commitment, or some comb<strong>in</strong>ation<br />
<strong>the</strong>reof? How do you account for <strong>in</strong>fluences on U.S. poets from<br />
England, Ireland, France, Spa<strong>in</strong>, Russia, Perú, Cuba, Chile, and Mexico?<br />
There are also many Spanish (and <strong>in</strong>digenous language) traditions<br />
<strong>in</strong> America and, more specifically, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> land now called <strong>the</strong> United<br />
States. To give just one, José E. Limón thoroughly discusses <strong>the</strong> corrido,<br />
which is an oral folk <strong>poetry</strong> that has been prom<strong>in</strong>ent both <strong>in</strong><br />
Mexico and <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> United States, <strong>in</strong> his aforementioned book. He<br />
shows its <strong>in</strong>fluence on Chicano Movement <strong>poetry</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1960s and<br />
1970s. Bil<strong>in</strong>gual <strong>poetry</strong>, moreover, can no longer be ignored by <strong>the</strong><br />
dom<strong>in</strong>ant literary culture as tens of millions of Americans are bil<strong>in</strong>gual,<br />
and <strong>the</strong>re are well over 40 million Lat<strong>in</strong>as/os <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> United States<br />
(many of whom speak two languages). Spanish language poems are<br />
also a key component of <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> United States; critics of<br />
American <strong>poetry</strong> should no longer ignore <strong>the</strong>m. F<strong>in</strong>ally, <strong>the</strong> discourses<br />
of “au<strong>the</strong>nticity,” as many cultural and postcolonial <strong>the</strong>orists have<br />
shown, often serve “traditions” that seek to ma<strong>in</strong>ta<strong>in</strong> l<strong>in</strong>guistic and<br />
power <strong>in</strong>equalities.<br />
The conscious mix<strong>in</strong>g of traditions and languages can create<br />
excit<strong>in</strong>g and discordant juxtapositions. The presence of Spanish <strong>in</strong> an