Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed November 19, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 233-241).

Thesis (MDram)--Stellenbosch University, 2012 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Poetry performance as a universal phenomenon is a performing art form. The aim of this study is to explore the diverse nature of this art form. The different types are investigated according to their nature and the reasons provided as motivation for the way in which these types are presented. This study focuses on the following types: poetry found in ritual, poetry readings, poetry recitals, poetry as part of word art (woordkuns), sung poetry, the verse drama and drama’s based on poetry. Under each of these categories relevant examples of each type are discussed. A background study which is primarily focused on a brief overview of the history of poetry performance in relation to its origin and development serves as an introduction and foundation for the study. Hereupon the different types of poetry performances, with relevant and contemporary variations as examples, are being compared to each other with the aim to elucidate the main similarities as well as differences between these examples. As part of the research of poetry performance, a practical project exploring the specific nature of dramas based on poetry was executed. This drama, called Ontslape, shares various comparisons as well as differences with other examples of contemporary drama’s based on poetry. It also shares similarities with word art (woordkuns). Although it is possible to distinguish between certain types of poetry performance, it however also appears that some types overlap in more than one way and therefore the conclusion can be made that poetry performance as a phenomenon consists of various possibilities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Poësie performance as universiële verskynsel is ‘n uitvoerende kunsvorm. In hierdie studie word die diversiteit van die kunsvorm ondersoek. Die onderskeie tipes word ondersoek na aanleiding van die aard en doel van die aanbieding. Die studie fokus op die volgende tipes: poësie in rituele verband, poësie in voorlesing, poësie en voordrag, poësie as deel van woordkuns, poësie in sangvorm, die versdrama en poësie gebasseerde drama’s. Onder elk van hierdie afdelings word relevante voorbeelde van elke tipe breedvoerig bespreek. ‘n Agtergrondstudie wat hoofsaaklik fokus op ‘n historiese oorsig met betrekking tot die oorsprong en ontwikkeling van poësie performance dien as basis vir en inleiding tot die studie. Hierop word onderskeie tipes poësie performance met relevante en kontemporêre voorbeelde en variasies belig met die doel om die ooreenkomste en verskille tussen tipes en voorbeelde uit te lig. As deel van die verkenning van poësie performances is ‘n praktiese projek uitgevoer wat by nader ondersoek ‘n voorbeeld van ‘n poësie gebasseerde drama is. Hierdie drama, getiteld Ontslape, toon verskille en ooreenkomste met ander kontemporêre poësie gebasseerde drama’s. Dit toon ook ooreenkomste met woordkuns. Alhoewel sekere tipes poësie performances duidelik van ander geskei kan word, blyk dit dus dat sekere tipes met mekaar oorvleuel en daar word dus gevolglik tot die konklusie gekom dat poësie performance as verskynsel oor ‘n legio aantal moontlikhede beskik.

This dissertation examines poets’ public performances in order to understand the social role of the poet in contemporary America. In the twenty-first century, poetry is increasingly disseminated through live events and digital media, and a rising number of people publicly share their poems. These changes present challenges for authors looking to attain credibility in the eyes of critics and audiences. The Role of the Poet examines how four poets perform their differences from non-authors, and thus form relationships with their audiences. In constructing roles for themselves, poets also make claims about the ontology of poems—whether they are primarily written, oral, or performative works of art. Each chapter focuses on an individual poet’s strategies for performing the role of the poet, and by extension, constructing the role of the audience. The chapters examine the ways poets define poetry; they include discussions of poetry’s ontology and how public poetry performances affect the artform. Performances of authorship are shaped through the vehicles of poets’ writings, poetry readings, interviews, teaching methods, and public programs. Chapter 2 examines Robert Pinsky’s performance of authorship as authority, relating that performance to Pinsky’s canonical ambitions and his affirmation that poetry is an oral, but not performative art. Chapter 3 focuses on Billy Collins’s performance of authenticity, investigating the apparent paradox of achieving popularity while maintaining artistic integrity. Beau Sia’s political poetry is the subject of Chapter 4; his ability to affect change in his audience is considered, as well as his goal of an author-audience alliance. Lastly, Patricia Smith’s performance of authorship as a means of survival is discussed in Chapter 5. Smith performs intimacy with her audience; by sharing details of her life she models the process of writing in order to deal with various kinds of trauma. / text

Cette étude propose une histoire des pratiques qui, à Paris, entre 1946 et 1969, ont lié poésie et performance et fait de la profération leur champ d’investigation principal. À partir de l’observation des manifestations publiques d’Antonin Artaud en 1946-47, de l’irruption en ces mêmes années du mouvement lettriste à Saint-Germain-des-Prés, de l’arrivée de la Beat Generation à la fin des années 1950, et des différents événements organisés par Jean-Jacques Lebel, Jean-Clarence Lambert et Henri Chopin durant les années 1960, cette thèse analyse les pratiques qui ont agité le champ artistique durant deux décennies et préparé l’imaginaire et le terrain revendicatif de Mai 68.En reprenant le flambeau des avant-gardes du début du XXe siècle, ces expériences, traversées par le faisceau de problématiques et de propositions ouvert par Artaud après guerre, aspirent à une poésie définie comme action et cherchent à relier art, vie et politique à travers une seule et même forme d’engagement. Ouvrant plusieurs chantiers qui prennent appui sur autant de refus : celui du livre, celui du spectacle, celui du langage comme propagande politique et publicitaire, elles placent l’ « engagement physique » du poète, à la fois auteur et performeur, au centre de leurs préoccupations et mettent en place un vaste champ d’expérimentations, notamment à travers l’utilisation du magnétophone qui marque la naissance de la « poésie sonore », avec les cut-ups de Brion Gysin et William S. Burroughs, les audiopoèmes de Henri Chopin, les mégapneumes de Gil J Wolman, les crirythmes de François Dufrêne, les poèmes-partitions de Bernard Heidsieck.En retraçant les trajectoires mais aussi leur croisement et en analysant les prises de position et les différentes stratégies, ce travail observe et questionne l’émergence et l’évolution de la figure du « poète-performeur », son savoir-faire scénique et ses aspirations ; il s’attache à des pratiques – encore méconnues (voire évincées) du domaine des Études théâtrales – qui continuent à irriguer de leur inventivité la scène performative et théâtrale d’aujourd’hui. / This study examines the history of practices in Paris between 1946 and 1969 that brought poetry and performance together and made proféraction their main field of investigation. Beginning with observations on the public performances of Antonin Artaud in 1946-47, and the sudden appearance in those same years of the Lettrist movement, continuing with the arrival of the Beat Generation at the end of the 1950’s, followed by the various events organised by Jean-Jacques Lebel, Jean-Clarence Lambert and Henri Chopin in the 1960’s, this work analyses practices that stirred the world of the arts over two decades and influenced the collective imagination, sowing the seeds of the social activism of May 68.By taking up the torch of early 20th Century avant-gardistes, these endeavours, illumined by the array of questions and proposals that Artaud ignited after the war, sought to create poetry as action and to link art, life and politics in a single form of engagement.Work went forward in several fields, often based on rejection of the conventional: in regard to books, to performing arts, to language as a tool for propaganda and advertising. The “physical engagement” of the poet, both author and performer, became the centre of their preoccupations and created a wide open space for experimentation, in particular: through the use of the tape recorder, bringing about “sound poetry”, with Brion Gysin’s and William S. Burroughs’ cut-ups; Henri Chopin’s audiopoèmes; the mégapneumes of Gil J Wolman; the crirythmes of François Dufrêne; and Bernard Heidsieck’s poèmes-partitions.By marking out the different trajectories and the points where they intersect, by analysing the statements and positions and different strategies, this work observes and questions the emergence and evolution of the figure of the “poet-performer”, his theatrical skills and aspirations; it sheds new light on practices – as yet little recognized by (even banished from) the field of Theatre Studies – that continue to provide a source of innovative inspiration to the world of performance and theatre today.

This thesis examines the political functions of the performance of skaldic poetry during the Viking Age. It aims to establish the vital role that skaldic verse plays in the establishment and maintenance of power, as well as the importance of skaldic performance in the negotiation of that power in the inter-community relations between various courts both within and outside of Viking Age Scandinavia. The first chapter provides a contextual understanding of Viking Age power structures by considering the central ideological constructs surrounding the concept of óðal (ancestral property). Óðal-derived power, it will be shown, is based on ruler-presence (which extends to ancestral presence) in the landscape, which is perceived as a crucial element in the legitimisation of authority and power. My second chapter will consider the political significance of skaldic performance within the context of ruler itinerancy, which develops in response to political practices based on the importance of óðal-derived legitimacy. Of particular importance in this respect, will be the use of 'presencing' proper- and praise-names in skaldic poetry that effect both spatial and temporal itinerancies in a highly distributable format. My third chapter will establish the representational features of skaldic performance and elaborate on the definition of Performance not only as action (in the Austinian sense), but also as a type of action that is defined by its artifice, its temporal continuity and its emergent dialogism. This will provide the theoretical context for my fourth and final chapter which will aim to examine the employment of skaldic Performance in Viking Age diplomatic praxes. Here the phenomenologically perceived 'binding' of the Self through the dialogic rhythmicity that arises out of skaldic ambiguity and crypticism will be of central importance.

This research explores the availability and potential educational uses of different forms of poetry that can be read using a postcolonial approach. The focus is on contemporary France and Spain, two contexts where people with different cultural heritages coexist and need to negotiate cultural imbalances inherited from colonial and neo-colonial domination. This research highlights poetry’s overlooked suitability to engage young people in the expression of cultural difference in a progressively globalized world where cultivating cross-cultural understanding and tolerance needs to be at the top of our agendas. For this reason, the dissertation includes an analysis of poems (currently available for young people) aiming to foreground the possibilities of a postcolonial reading. I also studied similarities and divergences between the French and Spanish scenarios based on evidence gathered during a survey of the Spanish and French fields of poetry for young people and from interviews with informed agents. The survey of the field consists of the exploration of textbooks and anthologies but also the examination of poetry circulating through on-line channels. The interviews were undertaken with selected French and Spanish representatives of people currently involved in the production and dissemination of poetry for young people. I observed that the number of poems showing connections to a postcolonial legacy was scant in the French school material and even more in the Spanish books that I examined. I also confirmed that little attention was given to oral ways to deliver poetry especially showing little regard for the oral literary practices and traditions of non-European French and Spanish speaking communities. The Spanish lack of attention to these traditions is more salient. This contrasts with observations about non-school contexts. Spanish and French young people can nowadays easily engage with varied cultural traditions in poetry which circulate in poetry events and social media. Interviewees confirmed these observations but also raised issues about Spanish and French poetry education that need to be dealt with so as to improve school attention to mixed cultural heritages in poetry. The main contribution to knowledge of this thesis consists in identifying the underused and unexplored educational potential of French and Spanish poetry currently available for young people that can be fruitfully approached using postcolonial lenses. The evaluation of the information gathered in this research reveals that dominant French and Spanish approaches to poetry and limited poetry repertoires hinder the visibility of some contemporary forms of poetry and restrain the effectiveness of some poetry already present in mainstream poetry corpora. However, the comparison of scenarios shows that France offers more accessible and relevant ‘places of enunciation ’ than Spain does for poets to address young people. For instance, comparing contexts, French young people have easier access and more support than Spanish youth to engage with poets’ expressions of being culturally displaced.

Thesis (M.A.)--Indiana University, 2010. / Title from screen (viewed on July 19, 2010). Department of English, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Karen Kovacik, Peggy Zeglin Brand, Ronda C. Henry. Includes vitae. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-83).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / My thesis examines the ways in which female performance poets deliver their messages and how those messages inspire, affirm, and encourage their audiences. From the traditions of outsider art—Beat poetry, feminist poetry, jazz, folk, punk, and rap—feminist performance poets choose the public sphere as a platform to witness to social injustices. In naming inequality, these poets challenge patriarchal foundations of gender roles, question academia’s criteria as to what constitutes “good” poetry, and expose social injustices. In this thesis, I examine the work of feminist performance poets Ani Difranco, Alix Olson, Andrea Gibson, Ursula Rucker, and Jessica Care Moore as examples of a new way of reading. Their work is significant in that they continue the tradition of feminist poetry by challenging the patriarchal status quo through a re-socializing and accessible style. Their work allows audiences to commune together in shared experience and promotes social change by demystifying cultural norms and gender codes in order to expose the exclusivity in patriarchal ideologies. These poets draw on a woman-centered spirituality, subvert misogynistic feminine archetypes, pay homage to ancestors and foremothers, and address issues of the body—naming oppression yet making room for pleasure.