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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INTRODUCTION 19<br />
chapter title doubles as a new signifier for a poetic technique and<br />
strategy: “Nuclear Protest Poetry,” “The Apocalyptic Lyric,”<br />
“Psychohistorical Poetry <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> Nuclear Age,” and “The Poetry of<br />
Dest<strong>in</strong>errance” are departure po<strong>in</strong>ts for Gery’s exploration of poems.<br />
This organization allows <strong>the</strong> author “to underscore how poets have<br />
imag<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>the</strong> nuclear world more than what <strong>the</strong>y explicitly say about<br />
it” (12; my emphasis). I use Gery’s method as a departure po<strong>in</strong>t and<br />
focus here on how poets make <strong>the</strong>ir poems <strong>political</strong>. Such an approach<br />
<strong>in</strong>evitably leads away from a primary emphasis on content or on an<br />
event-based perspective and to an emphasis on <strong>the</strong> imag<strong>in</strong>ative strategies<br />
and voices poets use to be <strong>political</strong>. Bernste<strong>in</strong> writes that “<strong>poetry</strong><br />
can be a process of th<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g ra<strong>the</strong>r than a report of th<strong>in</strong>gs already<br />
settled, an <strong>in</strong>vestigation of figuration ra<strong>the</strong>r than a picture of someth<strong>in</strong>g<br />
already figured out” (5), a claim that converges with both my<br />
approach and with Gery’s exploration of how poets imag<strong>in</strong>e nuclear<br />
threats <strong>in</strong>stead of what <strong>the</strong>y say about <strong>the</strong>m.<br />
My primary aim <strong>in</strong> this book is to elucidate <strong>the</strong> primary techniques<br />
of contemporary American <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> by do<strong>in</strong>g extensive read<strong>in</strong>gs<br />
of specific representative poems. For each strategy, I choose five to six<br />
poems that I believe best represent <strong>the</strong> characteristics of <strong>the</strong> particular<br />
rhetorical strategy. I consider strategies for engagement <strong>the</strong> primary<br />
departure po<strong>in</strong>t for my study of American <strong>political</strong> poems, with <strong>the</strong>ir<br />
sites of engagement and issues of engagement secondary variables for<br />
understand<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong> work <strong>the</strong>y attempt. Gibbons’s proposition that<br />
<strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> is “<strong>in</strong>extricable” from specific poems at “particular historical<br />
moments” leads to his suggestion that it is apt only to discuss<br />
examples of <strong>political</strong> poems (207) ra<strong>the</strong>r than to explicate <strong>political</strong><br />
<strong>poetry</strong> with broad critical strokes. The examples I choose to write<br />
about range from <strong>the</strong> Vietnam-era to <strong>the</strong> present; I occasionally select<br />
poems that appear <strong>in</strong> anthologies such as The Norton Anthology of<br />
Modern and Contemporary Poetry, whereas o<strong>the</strong>rs I choose are lesserknown<br />
poems that exhibit a range of qualities important to my study. In<br />
choos<strong>in</strong>g both Norton “worthy” poems by “canonical” poets, those<br />
that have been published only <strong>in</strong> magaz<strong>in</strong>es and journals, and those that<br />
have been anthologized <strong>in</strong> books such as Postmodern American Poetry:<br />
A Norton Anthology, Poetry Like Bread: Poets of <strong>the</strong> Political<br />
Imag<strong>in</strong>ation from Curbstone Press, and o<strong>the</strong>r lesser-known anthologies,<br />
I hope to engage a broad cross-section of American poetic practices,<br />
engagements, and strategies. Most of <strong>the</strong> hip-hop artists I discuss<br />
are <strong>in</strong>dependent artists, iconic figures <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> culture, or <strong>political</strong>ly<br />
resonant ones. My choices generally align with my aes<strong>the</strong>tic<br />
preferences and knowledge base, and my approach <strong>in</strong> this book allows