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The American Poetic Subprime: Contemporary Poetry, Race, and Genre

Introduction

  • Title: The American Poetic Subprime: Contemporary Poetry, Race, and Genre

  • Author: Walt Hunter, New Literary History, 2020, 51: 615–637

  • Quote: "Your door is shut against my tightened face . . ." —Claude McKay, “The White House”

Contemporary US Poetry

  • Key Characteristics:

    • Engages with political issues and has immediate public relevance.

    • Examples of impactful works:

      • Citizen: An American Lyric (2014) by Claudia Rankine

      • Look (2016) by Solmaz Sharif

      • Whereas (2017) by Layli Long Soldier

      • Don’t Call Us Dead (2017) by Danez Smith

      • Nature Poem (2017) by Tommy Pico

  • Themes:

    • Violence against racialized and indigenous populations.

    • Direct political address linking poetic speech to political position.

Historical Context

  • Transhistorical Approach:

    • Moves beyond traditional genealogies focusing exclusively on white male influences.

    • Poetic genres re-emerge punctuated by historical capitalism.

    • Restoring context clarifies political speech within contemporary poetry.

The House Poem Genre

  • Revitalization:

    • Analysis through examples of contemporary poets:

      • Nikki Wallschlaeger

      • Jennifer S. Cheng

      • Tracy K. Smith

  • Impact of Historical Pressures:

    • Explores pressures on households imposed asymmetrically on marginalized groups like Black, immigrant, and Latinx populations over the past three decades.

    • The new house poems display economic forces reflecting contemporary crises.

Links to Historical House Poems

  • Correlation with British House Poems:

    • Historical house poems mark shifts in power dynamics (e.g., transition from United Provinces to UK hegemony).

    • Analysis of poetic genre characteristics from critics:

      • G. R. Hibbard, Raymond Williams, Heather Dubrow, Barbara Lewalski

  • Define Relationships:

    • Examine expressive poetics under conditions of foreclosure and dispossession.

    • Gendered and racialized perspectives dominate the new house poems.

Thematic and Economic Critique

  • Critical Imagery of House Poems:

    • Imagines houses affected by the capitalist dream of homeownership: property, security, and inheritance.

    • Contradictions symbolize the experience of domestic labor intertwined with economic realities.

Contemporary Examples: Wallschlaeger, Cheng, Smith

  • Nikki Wallschlaeger:

    • Her poetry incorporates the voices of women sustaining households—domestic labor and its erasure.

    • Rearranges poetic language to reflect emotional and social contexts.

  • Jennifer S. Cheng:

    • Explores house as a site of memories and immigration, invoking personal histories and cultural contexts.

    • Utilizes a mix of forms, including prose poetry and instructional guides, to establish new meanings.

  • Tracy K. Smith:

    • Her poem "Ash" connects the house with the body, addressing violence experienced by Black individuals.

    • The poem's structure mirrors struggles, eliciting the house as both a physical and metaphorical space reflecting vulnerability.

Reexamining the Country-House Poem

  • Legacy and Value:

    • The country-house poem symbolizes social order and economic stability but lacks acknowledgment of labor behind domestic environments.

    • The modern iteration seeks to revitalize and criticize these narratives from marginalized perspectives.

Conclusion

  • Contemporary House Poems and their Potential:

    • Reflect the dynamics of economic oppression, racial discrimination, and social reproduction.

    • Serve as powerful counter-narratives to traditional house poems, effectively reshaping ideas of domesticity and community.

    • The evolution of the house poem genre emphasizes shared struggles in a contemporary context while addressing the broader implications of ownership, identity, and belonging.