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My critical introduction to my Master's thesis in English, She Wore Naked Men on Her Ears: A Collection of Original Poetry. Solipsistic modes of reading poetry neglect poetry's defined artificial substance. This artificial aspect of literature denies the substance of what it is said to represent: the writer's true self.
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INTRODUCTION
He tried to sing, singingnot to rememberhis true life of liesand to rememberhis lying life of truths.
-Octavio Paz, "Poet's Epitaph1
* 9 /V
Is poetry autobiography? The Confessional ^school of American poetry has
gained so much acceptance and, thus, power in our culture that it dictates theway many people read poetry $ttf& promotes Aie idea that the self, the poet, isimbedded in fajtM&X poetry, ^fytta/fbr many readers, poetry has become/i^/t
/Qri!$ an expression of the individual poet's true self, bu-t all subjects, themes,^ s and storiesCiolcLin a/poet^ poems are expressions of actual experiences of thel < $ \ , ' ^ —
& v1 'J' Poet- Tne poetic voices in the work are the poet's voice and/or fragments of thepoet speaking of his/her self, x0 know the poetry is to know the true self anda c t u a l l i f e e x p e r i e n c e s ' o f t h e p o e t . r u i i fi ^ ^ / ) "
The question of whether or not poetry is autobiography is closely tied tothe question does poetry have a gender? Some scholarship on poetry, such as
psychoanalytical and French feminist theory, relies on a crucial assumption:that language—and poetry by extension—has a gender. Language is thought ofin terms of being male and female; there are male sentences and female
sentences, male poetic forms and female poetic forms. For example, traditional
poetic forms and conventions are considered to be male and to exclude thefemale other. For the female poet to write the true self then, she must writefemale language that represents the female body, life, and experience.
1^ *ja aCopyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Copyright 1997 Gwen Williams. This work is covered by a creative commons license. Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
