From Amiri Baraka's Airplane Poems to Nathaniel Mackey's Ythmic Ships Poststruccturalism's I'mpact on experimental Writing in the African Diaspora

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Zamsky, Robert

Keywords

Poetry, African American Literature, Post-Structuralism, Jazz, Postcolonial Studies

Area of Concentration

English

Abstract

This thesis focuses on two African American writers who make very different contributions to our understanding of a �black aesthetic.� The discrepancies between Amiri Baraka and Nathaniel Mackey�s attitudes towards writing can be attributed to a generational divide. While Baraka�s early project was imbued with 1960�s Black Power ideology, Mackey incorporates many of the ideas generated by the poststructuralist theorists in the 1970�s and 1980�s. These different theoretical climates greatly impacted their attitudes towards orality/textuality, performance, and gender. Chapter one discusses the status of speech-based poetics before and after poststructuralism emerged, noting poststructuralism�s challenge to the authenticity traditionally associated with the spoken word and its emphasis on text�s ability to reveal the slippage of signifiers. Chapter two treats the live jazz performance�s impact on Baraka�s and Mackey�s approaches to writing and performing their poetry, taking into account poststructuralist theories on performative identity. The last chapter examines the gender dynamics of both writers� work, looking at the influence of the masculinist attitudes found within the Black Arts Movement and Black Mountain poetic schools on Baraka�s project, as well as the ways in which Mackey�s work echoes the ideas of poststructuralist third-wave feminist theorists.

Rights

This bibliographic record is available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication. The New College of Florida, as creator of this bibliographic record, has waived all rights to it worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

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