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.

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