To write a republic : American political poetry from Whitman to 9/11

Kotonen, Tommi To Write a Republic – American Political Poetry from Whitman to 9/11 Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskyla, 2012, 121 p. (Jyvaskyla Studies in Education, Psychology and Social Research, ISSN 0075-4625; 444) ISBN 978-951-39-4826-9 (nid.) ISBN 978-951-39-4827-6 (PDF) This study examines the relation between poetry and politics in American political poetry. The research proceeds from the reading of works of different schools of poetry to analysis of their ideas about politics and views on the political role of a poet. Focusing on the differences between speech poetry and language poetry, this study brings to the fore the political potential that lies in their conceptualizations of language, and the hindrances these conceptualizations create for their efforts to fully engage in politics. Concerning the poetical language and its relation to politics, one essential question raised in this study is how poets move from questions of poetical method and creation to ideas on politics and their role as political poets. The analysis follows certain analogies or parallels: in language poetry, the idea about language as system and as web reflects the idea about politics as power relations and hegemonic structures; in speech poetry the idea of man as the center of poetry is mirrored in the idea of politics as an action within a republican framework. The political aspects of poets have quite often been left to the footnotes of the works of literary scholars, and in political science the role of poetry has mostly been no more than anecdotal. In this study, the focus is on poetry that simultaneously preserves the poetical quality but also addresses political questions. The poetical works taken into closer examination in this research are by Walt Whitman, Ezra Pound, Charles Olson and Charles Bernstein. The analysis is based both on their poetical works and their theoretical writings. For these writers, political poetry is not just a political rant set to meter, for the political aspects go beyond the surface and can be found, for example, at the linguistic level. Form and content go hand in hand, and the formal ideas of these poets can also be read in the light of their political ideas