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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74 AMERICAN POLITICAL POETRY<br />
hardship, murder, or oppression <strong>in</strong> anecdotal detail, Espada l<strong>in</strong>ks his<br />
justification and representation to his witness, to what he has seen,<br />
which suggests a distance between himself and those he represents—<br />
see<strong>in</strong>g someth<strong>in</strong>g is fundamentally different from experienc<strong>in</strong>g<br />
someth<strong>in</strong>g. The witness, even one work<strong>in</strong>g and liv<strong>in</strong>g amongst a community,<br />
is separate; though he may not be a tourist, he can still leave<br />
when <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>rs cannot. He tries to mitigate this distance with work,<br />
charity, and <strong>poetry</strong>. Espada works to close <strong>the</strong> gap <strong>in</strong>herent <strong>in</strong> representation<br />
by imply<strong>in</strong>g: I am here work<strong>in</strong>g with and among <strong>the</strong> people;<br />
I am not a tourist and my advocacy is au<strong>the</strong>ntic.<br />
In John Beverley’s and Georg Lukacs’s terms, where Beverley<br />
discusses <strong>the</strong> testimonio tradition, Espada and Forché create “problematic<br />
heroes” <strong>in</strong> which <strong>the</strong> speaker-poet “lives with or alongside<br />
o<strong>the</strong>rs” <strong>in</strong> a difficult socioeconomic situation (27). “The Mean<strong>in</strong>g of<br />
<strong>the</strong> Shovel” <strong>in</strong>cludes both: <strong>the</strong> “problematic hero” foregrounds his<br />
own agency and selfless dedication to uplift<strong>in</strong>g (whe<strong>the</strong>r it is efficacious<br />
or not) an impoverished community <strong>in</strong> which <strong>the</strong> narrator lives<br />
and works, even if temporarily. More problematically, however, is <strong>the</strong><br />
notion of <strong>the</strong> poet as a professional writer who represents <strong>the</strong> poor as<br />
a form of “class privilege” <strong>the</strong> poor do not have (Beverley 29). The<br />
poem ends with <strong>the</strong> speaker-poet “digg<strong>in</strong>g until <strong>the</strong> passport / <strong>in</strong> [his]<br />
back pocket saturates with dirt, / because here [he] work(s) for<br />
noth<strong>in</strong>g / and for everyth<strong>in</strong>g” (my emphasis). The U.S. passport,<br />
Espada suggests, is a silver bullet, a ticket out of this neighborhood<br />
of extreme poverty; even though it is permeated with <strong>the</strong> dirt of<br />
Nicaragua, on some level jo<strong>in</strong><strong>in</strong>g his identity with that of <strong>the</strong> poor<br />
<strong>the</strong>re, it reveals his status as an outsider who represents <strong>the</strong>se people <strong>in</strong><br />
an <strong>in</strong>ternational forum specifically as a writer and aid worker, not as a<br />
Nicaraguan liv<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> solidarity with <strong>the</strong> poor. In my read<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>the</strong>n,<br />
Espada’s “shovel” and Forché’s “Country Between Us ” ultimately<br />
represent or symbolize <strong>in</strong>ternational aid, which is always complicated<br />
(and compromised) by <strong>the</strong> privilege of <strong>the</strong> aid givers. As such, its<br />
“mean<strong>in</strong>g” is mediated by those who give aid, but through <strong>the</strong> lens of<br />
what <strong>the</strong>y witness and by <strong>the</strong>ir attempt—at least <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> cases of<br />
progressive <strong>in</strong>ternational aid organizations—at solidarity with <strong>the</strong><br />
poor and <strong>the</strong> pursuit of justice for <strong>the</strong>m.<br />
Esapda’s and Forché’s justifications, f<strong>in</strong>ally, with all <strong>the</strong>ir bravado<br />
and swagger, are bettered by Robert Hass’s response to a similar<br />
question; if I were to redo my <strong>the</strong>sis defense, I would use his qualified<br />
claim for a <strong>political</strong> <strong>poetry</strong> of witness <strong>in</strong> lieu of Forché’s. 20 Hass has<br />
often said that present<strong>in</strong>g images of justice is <strong>the</strong> best way for <strong>poetry</strong><br />
to be <strong>political</strong>. In an <strong>in</strong>terview with The Iowa Review, Hass said that