Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
Shane Moran - Alternation Journal
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'ri)~(i Nor~.st~~~~lzi<br />
appal-ently well-intentioned argument of imperialism. like tlie universality OF Poems? You want poems? We got poems!<br />
culture. liicies in reality. the idea that only Western culture is universal. a racist<br />
idea. which until very recently. was openly proclain~ed (Samora Machel in<br />
Poems to make you dream<br />
M;rttclart & Siegelaub 1983:25)").<br />
while the rulers ofthe country are busy.<br />
Poems to send you to sleep<br />
While they test their tanks and guns.<br />
Poems for you and your aftermeal sleep.<br />
Poems whicli do not disturb you nor<br />
The quiet of a Sunday afternoon.<br />
litera~y establishment: Wlten the sernion in the morning was comforting<br />
in purple shirt and orangc tie<br />
I thc accredited clown<br />
to tliis ailingsocicty<br />
an1 allowcd to tell you a few truths<br />
and similar nonsense<br />
so listen you christened dung-heaps!<br />
I will lie fol- yo11<br />
cve~ythi~ig: 1 can invent: everything ...<br />
looking at you I realise: 1 bottle of beer<br />
is bctter than 1 volunle of poet~y<br />
of any FORM and CONTENT poet<br />
looking at you 1 realise: the only<br />
adcquate criticisni<br />
of tliis society<br />
TO RASf I N YOUR HEADS (Horn 1991 :27t]<br />
purporting to be disinterested' can be treated as 'econo~nic practices directed<br />
the inaximising of material or symbolic profit'. Literature is an arena in which s<br />
but no less serious struggles over resources, access and authority occur:<br />
concealed' (Ryan 1990:4). Sce also Spivak (1990: 1-16) on 'universal intellectuals'.<br />
And the chicken at lunch was tasty.<br />
There will be those who only see tlie ruins: tlie<br />
shortsighted<br />
vision of the disinherited of the revolution will<br />
hc with us<br />
for some time. They, who no longer own the riches<br />
of the previous times<br />
nor yet tlie riches of tlie rising time:<br />
but let us not be confused by them.<br />
Conslrlrctlons of Protest Poetqi<br />
e critics like Watson have focused narrowly and normatively on issues such as the<br />
Watson concludes the 'Under Pressure' essay with a defensive attempt to prop<br />
elitist assertions of value by referring to the supportive remarks of his students,<br />
of whom, he suggests, may have been black. Even if race were not an issue, the<br />
Like Horn, otlier progressive white writers sucli as Jeremy Cronin and Kclwyn Sole have<br />
addressed 'the reality behind the mask: behind the real prosperity of apart of the population.<br />
behind the general complacency. one discovers a world typified by guilt and schizophrenia, a<br />
Id from which one's fellow nien [sic]-thosc "unlike likesx-have been banished' (Alvarez-<br />
207<br />
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