Date of Award
Fall 1-6-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
English
First Advisor
Amy Moorman Robbins
Second Advisor
Nijah Noel Cunningham
Academic Program Adviser
Janet Neary
Abstract
Though the lyric-I has often been perceived as an isolated ego, Alice Notley's "I" in her long poem Disobedience (2001) necessitates plurality through what I call a "poetics of encounter." In response to the 1978 Language poetry manifesto "Aesthetic Tendency and the Politics of Poetry," and to the larger well-rehearsed debate about vocal homogeneity and persona centrism in poetry, this paper argues that Notley's poetics of encounter brings the "I" of Disobedience into continual and complex conversation with material history, politics, and mass culture, thus situating it within, and not sequestered from, the world and its mediation.
Recommended Citation
Baulch, Christina T., ""Nothing ‘Personal’ To Lose": Alice Notley’s “I” and the Poetics of Encounter in Disobedience" (2022). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/hc_sas_etds/824