Foreign Literature Studies ›› 2018, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (2): 121-131.

• American Literature Studies • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Writing as Recording: Racial Concerns in the Works of Contemporary African American Poets

Yu Youming   

  • Online:2018-04-25 Published:2022-05-24
  • About author:Yu Youming is associate professor at the International College of Chinese Studies, East China Normal University(Shanghai 200062, China). His recent research is mainly focused on English poetry and theatre. Email: steven78yu@hotmail.com
  • Supported by:
    “A Study of City Space in Contemporary American Poetry” (2015BWY005) sponsored by Shanghai Social Science Fund; “Anti-identity Writing and its Poetics of Post 9-11 American Minority Poets”(2017ECNU-YYJ021)sponsored by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities

Abstract: This essay is to analyze the awarded works of C.S.Giscombe, Claudia Rankine and Ronaldo W. Wilson with an effort to reveal their poetic experiment: to write as to record. Giscombe uses records to resist the construction of image, symbol and metaphor. Rankine's poetry is to some extent a collection of daily talks. What Wilson presents to us are the fragments of biographical material. These writings, being as recording, are closely related to racial politics. They effectively demonstrate the rejection against racial discrimination and the power of discourse which functions behind it, sensitively uncovering many kinds of disguised racial prejudice in today's America. Apart from the embodied racial concerns, the three poetic layers of this new type of writing are also discussed by the essay.

Key words: African American poets, recording writing, racial discrimination, poetic meanings

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