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Situation, Occasion, Encounter: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and Lyric Theory in the Historical Present

Situation, Occasion, Encounter: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and Lyric Theory in the Historical... ARTHU R Z. WANG Situation, Occasion, Encounter: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and Lyric Theory in the Historical Present t a rally in Springe fi ld, Illinois, on November 9, 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered his speech in front of a racially diverse au- dience. By “in front of,” I do not mean “before” or “facing.” The stage was not a proscenium, but in a now-common cong fi uration for televised political campaign speeches, a platform in the center of stadium-style seating. The audience visible on-screen was not in front of the candidate, facing him, but seated behind him as a strategically positioned, demographically curated backdrop of listeners, about half white and half people of color. The mise-en- scène: a clumsy illusion of diverse populations backing Trump. Fol- lowing the rally, images of the event circulated on social media, but not because of the commonplace hypocrisy of a politician deploying for political gain the very bodies he rhetorically denigrates (a pos- ture we might call racist d fi elity rather than racist irony). Instead the scene went viral because of an unusual disruption in the back- ground: the reading of a book of poetry at a political event. 1. Several http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Contemporary Literature University of Wisconsin Press

Situation, Occasion, Encounter: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and Lyric Theory in the Historical Present

Contemporary Literature , Volume 60 (4) – Nov 14, 2020

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Publisher
University of Wisconsin Press
Copyright
Copyright © Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin.
ISSN
1548-9949

Abstract

ARTHU R Z. WANG Situation, Occasion, Encounter: Claudia Rankine’s Citizen and Lyric Theory in the Historical Present t a rally in Springe fi ld, Illinois, on November 9, 2015, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered his speech in front of a racially diverse au- dience. By “in front of,” I do not mean “before” or “facing.” The stage was not a proscenium, but in a now-common cong fi uration for televised political campaign speeches, a platform in the center of stadium-style seating. The audience visible on-screen was not in front of the candidate, facing him, but seated behind him as a strategically positioned, demographically curated backdrop of listeners, about half white and half people of color. The mise-en- scène: a clumsy illusion of diverse populations backing Trump. Fol- lowing the rally, images of the event circulated on social media, but not because of the commonplace hypocrisy of a politician deploying for political gain the very bodies he rhetorically denigrates (a pos- ture we might call racist d fi elity rather than racist irony). Instead the scene went viral because of an unusual disruption in the back- ground: the reading of a book of poetry at a political event. 1. Several

Journal

Contemporary LiteratureUniversity of Wisconsin Press

Published: Nov 14, 2020

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