Georgina Colby
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781474440387
- eISBN:
- 9781474481236
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474440387.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter explores the significance of the archive to a reading of avant-garde writing, taking the work of Kathy Acker as a case study. Utilising a framework of genetic criticism, the chapter ...
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This chapter explores the significance of the archive to a reading of avant-garde writing, taking the work of Kathy Acker as a case study. Utilising a framework of genetic criticism, the chapter explores the relation between the avant-texte and an avant-garde politics of materiality. Examining Acker’s original artwork for Blood and Guts in High School (1978) housed in the Kathy Acker Papers at Duke University, the chapter contends that the avant-textes reveal a feminist politics of materiality at work in Acker’s compositions. Through the lens of Johanna Drucker’s work on diagrammatic writing and performative materiality, the chapter argues for the avant-texte as a site of socio-political material resistance. The diagrammatic in Acker’s work demands new reading practices commensurate with this resistance.Less
This chapter explores the significance of the archive to a reading of avant-garde writing, taking the work of Kathy Acker as a case study. Utilising a framework of genetic criticism, the chapter explores the relation between the avant-texte and an avant-garde politics of materiality. Examining Acker’s original artwork for Blood and Guts in High School (1978) housed in the Kathy Acker Papers at Duke University, the chapter contends that the avant-textes reveal a feminist politics of materiality at work in Acker’s compositions. Through the lens of Johanna Drucker’s work on diagrammatic writing and performative materiality, the chapter argues for the avant-texte as a site of socio-political material resistance. The diagrammatic in Acker’s work demands new reading practices commensurate with this resistance.
Paul Giles
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748640492
- eISBN:
- 9780748652129
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748640492.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter focuses on the historisation of transnationalism and the rewriting of British cultural history during the period from 1970 to 1997. It considers the ways in which this era functioned as ...
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This chapter focuses on the historisation of transnationalism and the rewriting of British cultural history during the period from 1970 to 1997. It considers the ways in which this era functioned as a bridge between the middle part of the twentieth century, when the public institutions of nationalism were still in full cry, and the turn of the new millennium, by which time the effects of globalisation and postnationalism had become widely prevalent and visible. The chapter reviews the relevant works of Robert Coover and Kathy Acker and argues that rather than implying the demise of the nation as an instrument of legislative control, transnationalism instead suggests that borders should no longer be located on the margins of a national sphere but seen as structurally inherent within it.Less
This chapter focuses on the historisation of transnationalism and the rewriting of British cultural history during the period from 1970 to 1997. It considers the ways in which this era functioned as a bridge between the middle part of the twentieth century, when the public institutions of nationalism were still in full cry, and the turn of the new millennium, by which time the effects of globalisation and postnationalism had become widely prevalent and visible. The chapter reviews the relevant works of Robert Coover and Kathy Acker and argues that rather than implying the demise of the nation as an instrument of legislative control, transnationalism instead suggests that borders should no longer be located on the margins of a national sphere but seen as structurally inherent within it.
Emily Spiers
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198820871
- eISBN:
- 9780191860461
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198820871.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature
Chapter 2 establishes the departure point for a genealogy of pop-feminist writing across North America, Britain, and Germany, which informs the author’s reading of the literary texts in the ...
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Chapter 2 establishes the departure point for a genealogy of pop-feminist writing across North America, Britain, and Germany, which informs the author’s reading of the literary texts in the subsequent chapters. She examines key texts by American authors Kathy Acker and Mary Gaitskill, showing how their influence has filtered down to the works of a group of North American and European women writers who were born post-1970. Acker and Gaitskill engage with the feminist and critical theories of their time in order to intervene in broader political debates in North America concerning social, racial, and gender inequalities. They explore the political impact of representing transgressive sexualities, madness, and neurosis and emphasizing unstable, multifaceted identity in their work. The chapter subsequently traces the transgressive gesture from the 1990s North American riot-grrrl movement through to the 2000s and a dramatically transformed cultural context.Less
Chapter 2 establishes the departure point for a genealogy of pop-feminist writing across North America, Britain, and Germany, which informs the author’s reading of the literary texts in the subsequent chapters. She examines key texts by American authors Kathy Acker and Mary Gaitskill, showing how their influence has filtered down to the works of a group of North American and European women writers who were born post-1970. Acker and Gaitskill engage with the feminist and critical theories of their time in order to intervene in broader political debates in North America concerning social, racial, and gender inequalities. They explore the political impact of representing transgressive sexualities, madness, and neurosis and emphasizing unstable, multifaceted identity in their work. The chapter subsequently traces the transgressive gesture from the 1990s North American riot-grrrl movement through to the 2000s and a dramatically transformed cultural context.
Georgina Colby
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780748683505
- eISBN:
- 9781474426930
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748683505.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
Kathy Acker’s body of work is one of the most significant collections of experimental writing in English. In Kathy Acker: Writing the Impossible, Georgina Colby explores the compositional processes ...
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Kathy Acker’s body of work is one of the most significant collections of experimental writing in English. In Kathy Acker: Writing the Impossible, Georgina Colby explores the compositional processes and intricate experimental practices Acker employed in her work, from early poetic exercises written in the 1970s to her final writings in 1997. Through original archival research, Colby traces the stages in Acker’s compositional processes and draws on her knowledge of Acker’s unpublished manuscripts, notebooks, essays, illustrations, and correspondence to produce new ways of reading Acker’s works. Rather than treating Acker as a postmodern writer this book argues that Acker continued a radical modernist engagement with the crisis of language, and carried out a series of experiments in composition and writing that are comparable in scope and rigor to her modernist predecessors Stein and Joyce. Each chapter focuses on a particular compositional method and insists on the importance of avant-garde experiment to the process of making new non-conventional modes of meaning. Combining close attention to the form of Acker’s experimental writings with a consideration of the literary cultures from which she emerged, Colby positions Acker as a key figure in the American avant-garde, and a pioneer of contemporary experimental women’s writing.Less
Kathy Acker’s body of work is one of the most significant collections of experimental writing in English. In Kathy Acker: Writing the Impossible, Georgina Colby explores the compositional processes and intricate experimental practices Acker employed in her work, from early poetic exercises written in the 1970s to her final writings in 1997. Through original archival research, Colby traces the stages in Acker’s compositional processes and draws on her knowledge of Acker’s unpublished manuscripts, notebooks, essays, illustrations, and correspondence to produce new ways of reading Acker’s works. Rather than treating Acker as a postmodern writer this book argues that Acker continued a radical modernist engagement with the crisis of language, and carried out a series of experiments in composition and writing that are comparable in scope and rigor to her modernist predecessors Stein and Joyce. Each chapter focuses on a particular compositional method and insists on the importance of avant-garde experiment to the process of making new non-conventional modes of meaning. Combining close attention to the form of Acker’s experimental writings with a consideration of the literary cultures from which she emerged, Colby positions Acker as a key figure in the American avant-garde, and a pioneer of contemporary experimental women’s writing.
Calum Gardner
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781786941367
- eISBN:
- 9781789629231
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781786941367.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, Poetry
The methodology of the book means that writers’ engagement with Barthes is what is studied, but this risks erasing writers who shy away from him. This chapter considers why some poets, particularly ...
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The methodology of the book means that writers’ engagement with Barthes is what is studied, but this risks erasing writers who shy away from him. This chapter considers why some poets, particularly those who are people of colour and/or queer, reject Barthes aesthetically and politically. This issue is positioned in relationship to contemporary discussions of avant-garde poetry and whiteness, and these concerns are illustrated with a more in-depth reading of the work of John Yau. This is followed by a discussion of queer objections to the Barthes of language poetry and a consideration of his work in the context of the New Narrative. The chapter concludes by considering why Kathy Acker rejects Barthes in favour of Bataille.Less
The methodology of the book means that writers’ engagement with Barthes is what is studied, but this risks erasing writers who shy away from him. This chapter considers why some poets, particularly those who are people of colour and/or queer, reject Barthes aesthetically and politically. This issue is positioned in relationship to contemporary discussions of avant-garde poetry and whiteness, and these concerns are illustrated with a more in-depth reading of the work of John Yau. This is followed by a discussion of queer objections to the Barthes of language poetry and a consideration of his work in the context of the New Narrative. The chapter concludes by considering why Kathy Acker rejects Barthes in favour of Bataille.
Kathryn Hume
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801450013
- eISBN:
- 9780801462870
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450013.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 20th Century Literature
A frequent complaint against contemporary American fiction is that too often it puts off readers in ways they find difficult to fathom. Books such as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Katherine ...
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A frequent complaint against contemporary American fiction is that too often it puts off readers in ways they find difficult to fathom. Books such as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, and Don DeLillo's Underworld seem determined to upset, disgust, or annoy their readers—or to disorient them by shunning traditional plot patterns and character development. This book calls such works “aggressive fiction.” Why would authors risk alienating their readers—and why should readers persevere? Looking beyond the theory-based justifications that critics often provide for such fiction, this book offers a common-sense guide for the average reader who wants to better understand and appreciate books that might otherwise seem difficult to enjoy. The book considers roughly forty works of recent American fiction, including books by William Burroughs, Kathy Acker, Chuck Palahniuk, and Cormac McCarthy. It gathers “attacks” on the reader into categories based on narrative structure and content. Writers of some aggressive fictions may wish to frustrate easy interpretation or criticism. Others may try to induce certain responses in readers. Extreme content deployed as a tactic for distancing and alienating can actually produce a contradictory effect: for readers who learn to relax and go with the flow, the result may well be exhilaration rather than revulsion.Less
A frequent complaint against contemporary American fiction is that too often it puts off readers in ways they find difficult to fathom. Books such as Bret Easton Ellis's American Psycho, Katherine Dunn's Geek Love, and Don DeLillo's Underworld seem determined to upset, disgust, or annoy their readers—or to disorient them by shunning traditional plot patterns and character development. This book calls such works “aggressive fiction.” Why would authors risk alienating their readers—and why should readers persevere? Looking beyond the theory-based justifications that critics often provide for such fiction, this book offers a common-sense guide for the average reader who wants to better understand and appreciate books that might otherwise seem difficult to enjoy. The book considers roughly forty works of recent American fiction, including books by William Burroughs, Kathy Acker, Chuck Palahniuk, and Cormac McCarthy. It gathers “attacks” on the reader into categories based on narrative structure and content. Writers of some aggressive fictions may wish to frustrate easy interpretation or criticism. Others may try to induce certain responses in readers. Extreme content deployed as a tactic for distancing and alienating can actually produce a contradictory effect: for readers who learn to relax and go with the flow, the result may well be exhilaration rather than revulsion.
Mark Amerika
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262013901
- eISBN:
- 9780262289696
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262013901.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter is an “autobiographical” account, through the voice of “Professor VJ,” of a vigorous aesthetic performance of a paradoxical voice function: It is an act of digital/remix of his voice, ...
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This chapter is an “autobiographical” account, through the voice of “Professor VJ,” of a vigorous aesthetic performance of a paradoxical voice function: It is an act of digital/remix of his voice, showing that what we consider to be our authentic voice is always/already inherited, a sampling of others, a remixing of our own. Professor VJ is an “appropriation artist” who claims that he does not have a “self” and quotes Kathy Acker, who, in a radio interview, uttered the words “What voice? I just steal shit” when asked where she finds her voice. For Professor VJ, voice is something mashed together of singing and talking, of speaking and breathing, of reading and writing. In the context of his work, the chapter equates “voice” with identity, conceived of as “character.”Less
This chapter is an “autobiographical” account, through the voice of “Professor VJ,” of a vigorous aesthetic performance of a paradoxical voice function: It is an act of digital/remix of his voice, showing that what we consider to be our authentic voice is always/already inherited, a sampling of others, a remixing of our own. Professor VJ is an “appropriation artist” who claims that he does not have a “self” and quotes Kathy Acker, who, in a radio interview, uttered the words “What voice? I just steal shit” when asked where she finds her voice. For Professor VJ, voice is something mashed together of singing and talking, of speaking and breathing, of reading and writing. In the context of his work, the chapter equates “voice” with identity, conceived of as “character.”
