Problems of the 'Political' in British Avant-Garde Poetry and Poetics, 2003-2012

This investigation addresses formal and conceptual problems in poetry, identified through critical investigations of my own and my poetic peers’ work, and through theoretical and philosophical texts (Butler, 2000; Hegel, 1807; Owens, 1980; Rose, 1996; Kappeler, 1986). The notion of a ‘political’ poetry, as loosely posited by contemporary critics (Archambeau, 2009) is discussed, using Ancient Greek readings of polis (Arendt, 1958; Yunis, 1996). Subsequent related topics for discussion include critical irony, subjectivity, feminist theory, and fantasy. Source material for their identification includes my own poetry (Morris, 2006; 2007), the poetry pamphlet IRA Quid (Brady et al., 2004), and criticism on the work of J.H. Prynne (Sutherland, 2010). I then discuss the influence of these readings on my practice, and present practice work written in response to the research aims.

I present my practical poetic outcomes as an extension of the theoretical questions outlined by way of analysing individual poems, and by presenting poems as their own mode of discourse within the critical text. Research is shown to have influenced my practice through an evolving methodology that responds to questions unearthed during the project. This methodology develops a body politics through compositional experiments with the typewriter (Olson, 1965; Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; Abramović, 2011), and places emphasis on live performance as crucial to ‘political’ poetry due to its affects. Also provided are case studies of poetry readings given during the research period and their effects on practice, and a summary of Lyric & Polis, a festival of poetry readings and open discussion, which I hosted in Falmouth in February 2012. A concluding section looks at future possibilities for poetic practice in light of my findings, and suggests some ways for moving on from some of the key contradictions arising in relation to unequivocal poetic statements, and the question of ‘aboutness’.

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