Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2020
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
English
Advisor
Steven F. Kruger
Committee Members
Stephanie Burt
Carrie Hintz
Joshua Wilner
Subject Categories
American Literature | Ethnic Studies | History of Gender | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Literature in English, North America | Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Poetry | Women's History | Women's Studies
Keywords
poetics, archives, transgender studies, pedagogy, history of disciplines, life writing
Abstract
This dissertation, "A Literary History of Early Trans Poetry: Readings, Poetics, Transitions, Obstacles, Movements," creates an interdisciplinary subfield where I use aspects of trans history and trans cultural production to uncover and document the centrality of contributions by trans poets to the history of poetry and poetics. I reconstruct the literary careers, contexts, and creative vectors of the first generation of trans poets to publish books in the US: Samuel Ace, Stephanie Burt, kari edwards, Joy Ladin, Trish Salah, and Max Wolf Valerio. Instead of simply reiterating a recognizable trans narrative, I address each writer's experience of gender transition in relation to their creative literary trajectory, discussing aporias, challenges, and triumphs in conversation with their immediate contexts. In the process, I show how transition has both literary and extra-literary resonance for how we perceive an author’s work, and for what we understand that work to mean. Looking at the methodological tools of reading traditionally taught in literary studies, I demonstrate how these are inadequate to understanding the work of trans writers, and I gesture toward alternate paradigms for reading trans poets. Using trauma theory and research into the history of creative writing as an academic discipline, I examine the inadequacy for trans poets of such an institutional discipline by drawing parallels between aspects of this system and the administrative history of medical gender transition, in the process unearthing deep ideological reasons why trans people are often mistakenly assumed to be limited to the creation of their own genders rather than being able to produce artistic texts like poems. Finally, I address how each of these early trans poets managed to evade such disciplinary and contextual obstacles by entering into conversation with important movements of their moment in twentieth-century poetry, including New Narrative, Gloria Anzaldúa's This Bridge Called My Back, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa, and Elliptical Poetry.
Recommended Citation
Peterson, Trace, "A Literary History of Early Trans Poetry: Readings, Poetics, Transitions, Obstacles, Movements" (2020). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/4078
Graduate Center users:
To read this work, log in to your GC ILL account and place a thesis request.
Non-GC Users:
See the GC’s lending policies to learn more.
Included in
American Literature Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, History of Gender Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Literature in English, North America, Ethnic and Cultural Minority Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Poetry Commons, Women's History Commons, Women's Studies Commons