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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54 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
Black Feel<strong>in</strong>g Black Talk and Black Judgment, both published <strong>in</strong> 1968,<br />
conta<strong>in</strong> many <strong>political</strong> poems of authoritative agency. After numerous<br />
read<strong>in</strong>gs, “The True Import of Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro”<br />
(The Collected Poetry 19–20) stands out as a premier example of an<br />
authoritative <strong>political</strong> poem, although not as her most successful. Its<br />
authoritative voice is a primary product of how <strong>the</strong> poem values life.<br />
Reg<strong>in</strong>ald Gibbons has noted that <strong>political</strong> poems must take a stand on<br />
<strong>the</strong> value of life itself; he writes, “It is no surprise when a great and<br />
<strong>political</strong> poem like Neruda’s ‘Alturas de Macchu Picchu’ prizes life<br />
over death, but a <strong>political</strong> (and especially a revolutionary) poem must<br />
also beg<strong>in</strong> to say whose life” (288; orig<strong>in</strong>al emphasis). In “The True<br />
Import” and o<strong>the</strong>r poems <strong>in</strong> Giovanni’s 1968 books, black life is <strong>in</strong>f<strong>in</strong>itely<br />
more valuable than white life, and her poems protest white<br />
racism and <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>stitutional structures that support it. Giovanni’s<br />
<strong>political</strong> position <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong>se poems—<strong>in</strong> many ways representative of <strong>the</strong><br />
Black Arts Movement—has created contentious debate, some of<br />
which I outl<strong>in</strong>e <strong>in</strong> order to contextualize <strong>the</strong> confrontational and<br />
authoritative voice of Giovanni’s poem.<br />
There are two primary schools of thought with regard to <strong>the</strong> <strong>in</strong>flammatory<br />
rhetoric of <strong>the</strong> Black Arts Movement. On one hand, critics<br />
such as J. Saunders Redd<strong>in</strong>g attack <strong>the</strong> 1960s Black Aes<strong>the</strong>tic for what<br />
he considers its hate and reverse racism (cited <strong>in</strong> P. Harper 239). This<br />
group would likely view “The True Import” as an unequivocal document<br />
of racism and anti-Semitism. This understand<strong>in</strong>g allows—<br />
perhaps rightly so—no room for strategic rhetorical <strong>in</strong>tent and<br />
generally offers no fur<strong>the</strong>r depth. On <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand, critics such as<br />
David L. Smith, though <strong>the</strong>y do not apologize for anti-Semitic l<strong>in</strong>es<br />
like those <strong>in</strong> Amiri Baraka’s “Black Art” or <strong>in</strong> “The True Import,” f<strong>in</strong>d<br />
a cogent social and <strong>political</strong> framework for <strong>the</strong> controversial rhetoric of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Black Arts aes<strong>the</strong>tic. Smith suggests that Baraka uses <strong>the</strong> term<br />
“Jew” <strong>in</strong> part because American culture “provides us with an effective<br />
language of oppression” but not one of liberation, and that “Jew” br<strong>in</strong>gs<br />
“emotional force” to <strong>the</strong> poem. This type of poetic strategy is an example<br />
of what Smith calls “an art which outrages by be<strong>in</strong>g outrageous”<br />
(“Amiri” 243–244). In <strong>the</strong> same ve<strong>in</strong>, Phillip Brian Harper suggests <strong>the</strong><br />
primary reason for <strong>the</strong> use of racist language <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> late 1960s:<br />
<strong>the</strong> “enemy” of <strong>the</strong> Black Arts Movement was <strong>the</strong> white “establishment”<br />
(238) without differentiation and without apology. Smith’s approach<br />
provides a de facto consensus po<strong>in</strong>t I take from here on: “too often <strong>the</strong><br />
work is marred by <strong>the</strong> swagger<strong>in</strong>g rhetoric of ethnic and gender<br />
chauv<strong>in</strong>ism” (“The Black” 93), which emblemizes an uncompromis<strong>in</strong>g<br />
rhetorical strategy pledged to revolution by any means.