Nonnarrative and history in Barrett Watten’s "Under erasure"

  1. Manuel Brito 1
  1. 1 Universidad de La Laguna
    info

    Universidad de La Laguna

    San Cristobal de La Laguna, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01r9z8p25

Revista:
Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos

ISSN: 0210-6124

Año de publicación: 2018

Volumen: 40

Número: 1

Páginas: 153-174

Tipo: Artículo

DOI: 10.28914/ATLANTIS-2018-40.1.08 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Atlantis: Revista de la Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos

Resumen

Este ensayo analiza cómo el poema de Barrett Watten, Under Erasure (1991), se basa en el uso de la borradura y el desplazamiento en las formas nonarrativas en un texto donde la narración de eventos históricos demanda discontinuidad y autoconsciencia. Al relacionar esta poesía en su libro The Constructivist Moment (2003) con una estructura temporal llena de continuos saltos y ausencias, la visión que Watten tiene de la poesía y la historia requiere acción y transformación ideológica. Para él, la poesía nonarrativa y la historia se asemejan mucho, en tanto que ambas prefieren el recuerdo episódico a la periodización o al marco narrativo convencional. Estas estrategias propician la reflexión sobre la conexión entre identidad e información como un proceso global de reinterpretación y borradura continuas. Este tipo de escritura es más sincrónica que diacrónica, como se manifiesta en el recurso a una estructura estrófica repetitiva en Under Erasure. La paradoja esencial que se produce en este poema de Watten es que, a pesar de esta rígida estructura, su escritura genera continuamente diferentes significados. El poeta ha investigado en este texto la manera de acceder a una nueva representación a través de la no representación y de forma sencilla: articulando una nueva perspectiva sobre la historia alejada de encorsetamientos culturales convencionales.

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Aji, Hélène. 2007. “Barrett Watten: Poetry and Historiography.” In Poetry and Public Language, edited by Tony Lopez and Anthony Caleshu, 17-24. Exeter: Shearsman Books.
  • Anderson, Michael C. 2009. “Retrieval.” In Alan Baddeley, Michael W. Eysenck and Michael C. Anderson, eds., 163-189.
  • Andrews, Bruce. 1996. Paradise & Method: Poetics & Praxis. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP.
  • Arnold, David. 2007. Poetry & Language Writing: Objective and Surreal. Liverpool: Liverpool UP.
  • Baddeley, Alan. 2009a. “Autobiographical Memory.” In Alan Baddeley, Michael W. Eysenck and Michael C. Anderson, eds., 137-162.
  • Baddeley, Alan. 2009b. “What Is Memory?” In Alan Baddeley, Michael W. Eysenck and Michael C. Anderson, eds., 1-17.
  • Baddeley, Alan, Michael W. Eysenck and Michael C. Anderson, eds. 2009. Memory. New York: Psychology Press.
  • Chatman, Seymour. 1990. Coming to Terms: The Rhetoric of Narrative in Fiction and Film. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP.
  • Conte, Joseph. 1995. “Complete Thought: The Language of Postmodern Meditation.” Aerial 8: 209-214.
  • Day, Ron. 1995. “‘Against’ Public Information: Barrett Watten’s Under Erasure.” Aerial 8: 50-59.
  • Derrida, Jacques. (1967) 1997. Of Grammatology. Translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins UP.
  • Edmond, Jacob. 2005. “American Language Poetry and the Definition of the Avant Garde.” In Avant-Garde/Neo-Avant-Garde, edited by Dietrich Schneuman, 173-192. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
  • Eysenck, Michael W. 2009. “Semantic Memory and Stored Knowledge.” In Alan Baddeley, Michael W. Eysenck and Michael C. Anderson, eds., 113-135.
  • Harris, Kaplan Page. 2009. “New Narrative and the Making of Language Poetry.” American Literature 81 (4): 805-832.
  • Hartley, George. 1989. Textual Politics and the Language Poets. Bloomington, IN: Indiana UP.
  • Hejinian, Lyn. 1978. Writing Is an Aid to Memory. Great Barrington, MA: The Figures.
  • Hejinian, Lyn. 1980. My Life. Providence, RI: Burning Deck.
  • Hejinian, Lyn. 2000. The Language of Inquiry. Berkeley, CA: U of California P.
  • Jameson, Fredric. 1981. The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a Socially Symbolic Act. Ithaca, NY: Cornell UP.
  • Lazer, Hank. 1996. Opposing Poetries. Part Two: Readings. Evanston, IL: Northwestern UP.
  • McGann, Jerome. 1987. “Contemporary Poetry, Alternate Routes.” Critical Inquiry 13 (3): 624-647.
  • McGann, Jerome. 2007. The Point Is to Change It: Poetry and Criticism in the Continuing Present. Tuscaloosa, AL: The U of Alabama P.
  • Metres, Phil. 2000. “A Review on Barrett Watten’s Bad History.” Indiana Review 22 (1): 178-179.
  • Perelman, Bob. 1996. The Marginalization of Poetry. Language Writing and Literary History. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP.
  • Perloff, Marjorie. 1985. The Dance of the Intellect. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Perloff, Marjorie. 1990. “‘The Sweetness Aftertaste of Artichokes’: The Lobes of Autobiography. Lyn Hejinian’s My Life.” Fragmente 2: 49-56.
  • Quartermain, Peter. 1992. “Syllable as Music: Lyn Hejinian’s Writing Is an Aid to Memory.” Sagetrieb 11 (3): 17-32.
  • Reddy, Srinkath. 2009. “Changing the Sjuzet: Lyn Hejinian’s Digressive Narratologies.” Contemporary Literature 50 (1): 54-93.
  • Reinfeld, Linda. 1992. Language Poetry: Poetry as Rescue. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State UP.
  • Robinson, Kit. 1995. “Barrett Watten’s Under Erasure: ‘An Image of Nontotality in Indeterminate Frames.’” Aerial 8: 60-64.
  • Schacter, Daniel L. and Endel Tulving. 1982. “Amnesia and Memory Research.” In Human Memory and Amnesia, edited by Laird S. Cermak, 1-32. Hillsdale, MI: Lawrence Erlbaum.
  • Silliman, Ron. 1981. Tjanting. Great Barrington, MA: The Figures.
  • Silliman, Ron. 1987. The New Sentence. New York: Roof.
  • Silliman, Ron. 2008. The Alphabet. Tuscaloosa, AL: The U of Alabama P.
  • Smith, Rod. 1995. “‘And the Words Are Everywhere a Democratic Police…’” Aerial 8: ix-xii.
  • Toulmin, Stephen. 1958. The Uses of Argument. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
  • Vickery, Ann. 2000. Leaving the Lines of Gender: A Feminist Genealogy of Language Writing. Hanover, CT: Wesleyan UP.
  • Watten, Barrett. 1975. Opera—Works. Bolinas, CA: Big Sky.
  • Watten, Barrett. 1982. Complete Thought. Berkeley, CA: Tuumba Press.
  • Watten, Barrett. 1985. Progress. New York: Roof Books.
  • Watten, Barrett. 1991a. Letter addressed to the author, Manuel Brito, and in his possession, June 8.
  • Watten, Barrett. 1991b. Under Erasure. La Laguna: Zasterle Press.
  • Watten, Barrett. 1993. “Barrett Watten: Blurb.” In Live at the Ear. First Audio-Anthology of PostModern L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E=P=O=E=T=R=Y, edited by Charles Bernstein. [Accessed online on October 20, 2017].
  • Watten, Barrett. 1995. “The Conduit of Communication in Everyday Life.” Aerial 8: 32-38.
  • Watten, Barrett. 1998. Bad History. Berkeley, CA: Atelos.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2003. The Constructivist Moment: From Material Text to Cultural Poetics. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan UP.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2004. “Introduction” to Progress/Under Erasure. Los Angeles, CA: Green Integer.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2006. “Poetics in the Expanded Field: Textual, Visual, Digital...” In New Media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts and Theories, edited by Adelaide Morris and Thomas Swiss, 335-370. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2007. “Reverse Maps.” In The Grand Piano: An Experiment in Collective Autobiography. San Francisco, 1975-1980. Part 4, edited by Carla Harryman, Kit Robinson, Tom Mandel, Barrett Watten, Rae Armantrout, Ted Pearson, Lyn Hejinian, Bob Perelman, Ron Silliman and Steve Benson, 63-85. Detroit, MI: Mode A.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2008. “The Turn to Language.” In The Grand Piano: An Experiment in Collective Autobiography. San Francisco, 1975-1980. Part 6, edited by Ron Silliman, Steve Benson, Bob Perelman, Kit Robinson, Barrett Watten, Lyn Hejinian, Carla Harryman, Rae Armantrout, Ted Pearson and Tom Mandel, 58-83. Detroit, MI: Mode A.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2011. “Presentism and Periodization in Language Writing, Conceptual Art, and Conceptual Writing.” Journal of Narrative Theory 41 (1): 125-161.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2012. “I’m interested in ideas…” Twitter message to author, Manuel Brito, December 19.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2013. “After Literary Community: The Grand Piano and the Politics of Friendship.” In Among Friends: Engendering the Social Site of Poetry, edited by Anne Dewey and Libbie Rifkin, 106-129. Iowa City, IA: U of Iowa P.
  • Watten, Barrett. 2016. Questions of Poetics: Language Writing and Consequences. Iowa City, IA: U of Iowa P.
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet