The Dream and the Dialogue: Adrienne Rich's Feminist PoeticsUniv. of Tennessee Press, 1994 - 193 pages "Adrienne Rich's poetry has long engaged critics in questions about the nature of poetic art, the character of poetic tradition, and the value of poetry as a political and cultural activity. At the same time, it has attracted many general readers, largely because it expresses the personal, social, and intellectual crises faced by feminists during the last thirty years." "In this study, Alice Templeton looks at the ways in which feminist thinking has influenced Rich's poetics while, simultaneously, her poetic practice has shaped her feminist conceptions. Templeton begins by exploring the tensions between epic, eulogistic, and lyric claims made in the poems collected in Diving into the Wreck (1973). She then examines the strategies Rich uses in subsequent collections to test and refine her feminist thinking. Templeton focuses, in particular, on the "dialogic moments" of cultural participation that Rich's poetry provides for the poet and the reader. These "moments," Templeton argues, can dispel myths of social determinism even as they implicate readers in an ethically charged communal bond." "By demonstrating the contributions that Rich has made both to feminist thinking and to our ways of reading poetic tradition, The Dream and the Dialogue treats Rich as a poet of ideas and places her work solidly in the context of contemporary literary theory."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
The Lyric Self in a Feminist Moment | 9 |
Burning the Premises Down | 112 |
Times Power Poems 19851988 | 138 |
Common terms and phrases
acknowledges action aesthetic attempt becomes begins calls claims collective Common Language complex complicated conception connection consciousness contemporary context continually contradictions costs create critical cultural death defines describes desire determinism dialogic Difficult Diving dominant Dream effects engagement epic ethical existence experience expresses female feminism feminist poetics feminist thinking finally finds ground hermeneutics human ideal ideology images imagination implies individual interpretation kind language liberating limit literal literary living lyric meaning mode moves myths nature necessary negotiation object oppression pain participation particular past poem poet poet's political position possible practice present provides question reader reading rejects relation relationship resistance responsibility reveal Rich Rich's feminist Rich's poetry romantic sense social Sources suggests symbolic themes theory tion tradition truth turn understanding violence vision volume Wild woman women Wreck writing