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Poetry and WorkWithout the Text at Hand: Postcolonial Writing and the Work of Memorisation

Poetry and Work: Without the Text at Hand: Postcolonial Writing and the Work of Memorisation [This chapter explores how the work of memorisation problematises the location of textual authority. Given that memorisation is a deliberate choice rather than a necessity for the contemporary writer, the choice to “ingest” the text and to recite (or “perform”) poetry without a script has implications for our understanding of labour and other lived experience. The device of memorisation can foreground the relationship of our pre-existing bodily life to the physical product of a text, and thus pose the question of situating the poet’s work in relation to a Marxist analysis of labour. Above all, an approach to memorisation begins to illuminate the uneasiness of forms of dominance within writing, particularly relevant for Caribbean writers (such as Derek Walcott, Kei Miller, and Lorna Goodison), who deliberately engage with memorisation’s history as a colonial education technique. To emphasise recitation and the writing of poetry as something which is practised (repeated and honed) places it side-by-side with other activities which depend on “performance,” such as labour, sport, and sex, initiating evaluations of skill, virtuosity, and relation to a tradition.] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

Poetry and WorkWithout the Text at Hand: Postcolonial Writing and the Work of Memorisation

Part of the Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics Book Series
Editors: Walton, Jo Lindsay; Luker, Ed
Lê, Aimée
Poetry and Work — Nov 17, 2019
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17 pages

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References (11)

Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Copyright
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
ISBN
978-3-030-26124-5
Pages
245 –262
DOI
10.1007/978-3-030-26125-2_8
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[This chapter explores how the work of memorisation problematises the location of textual authority. Given that memorisation is a deliberate choice rather than a necessity for the contemporary writer, the choice to “ingest” the text and to recite (or “perform”) poetry without a script has implications for our understanding of labour and other lived experience. The device of memorisation can foreground the relationship of our pre-existing bodily life to the physical product of a text, and thus pose the question of situating the poet’s work in relation to a Marxist analysis of labour. Above all, an approach to memorisation begins to illuminate the uneasiness of forms of dominance within writing, particularly relevant for Caribbean writers (such as Derek Walcott, Kei Miller, and Lorna Goodison), who deliberately engage with memorisation’s history as a colonial education technique. To emphasise recitation and the writing of poetry as something which is practised (repeated and honed) places it side-by-side with other activities which depend on “performance,” such as labour, sport, and sex, initiating evaluations of skill, virtuosity, and relation to a tradition.]

Published: Nov 17, 2019

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