My dissertation focuses on the forms of costume outside the theatre. For its purpose I propose reflecting the western society at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century as a form of staged (shaped by the abundance of dramatic narrative in media) reality. I discuss the role of mass media in relation to the spectator, e.g. visual and narrative codes effecting our own self representation.

[pt] A dissertação apresenta uma incursão pelos poemas de duas poetas da diáspora negra, Carol Dall Farra, do Brasil, e Porsha Olayiwola, dos Estados Unidos, numa investigação sobre processos do sentimento de não pertencimento na constituição de subjetividades de mulheres negras a partir de reflexões acerca de elementos de diferenciação, como raça, gênero, classe, religião e orientação sexual. Em formato de ensaios, pretende-se discutir economia onomástica, assim como a influência da cultura negra nas línguas coloniais, a heterossexualidade compulsória e outras experiências relacionadas à diáspora negra, cuja resistência, aqui, desponta nas performances poéticas das autoras no slam poetry, que, nesse sentido, funciona como uma ferramenta de construção de identidades e da partilha do sensível, formulação de Jacques Rancière, em que os interlocutores dos poemas são muitas vezes as mulheres negras, que, assim como as poetas, constroem suas subjetividades com os poemas declamados. Sob a luz dos escritos de intelectuais como bell hooks, Audre Lorde e Lélia Gonzalez, discute-se as disputas que as poetas escolhidas escolhem travar para forjar subjetividades e criar vínculos. / [en] The dissertation presents an excursion into the poems of two poets from the African diaspora: Carol Dall Farra, from Brazil, and Porsha Olayiwola, from the United States, in an investigation into processes of the feeling of non-belonging in the constitution of subjectivities of black women upon reflections on elements of differentiation, such as race, gender, class, religion and sexual orientation. These essays discuss onomastic economics, as well as the influence of Black culture on colonial languages, compulsory heterosexuality and various experiences related to the African diaspora, whose resistance, in this case, emerges in the poetic performances of the authors in slam poetry , which, in this sense, function as tools for building identities and partage du sensible, formulation by Jacques Rancière, in which the interlocutors of the poems are often black women, who, such as the poets, assemble their identities in virtue of the recited poems. In the light of the writings of intellectuals such as bell hooks, Audre Lorde and Lélia Gonzalez, the disputes that these poets choose to wage to forge subjectivities and create bonds are discussed.

This degree project essay examines the literary culture phenomenon known as poetry slam, a competitive format for performance poetry, with the purpose of discussing whether poetry slam could contribute to upper secondary school Swedish teaching or not. The essay consists of two parts, one where poetry slam is presented and one where poetry slam is discussed from a didactic perspective. In the first part, a brief history of poetry slam and its origins in the U.S. is presented, followed by a discussion of the ideology within the slam movement. Furthermore, the set of rules that regulate poetry slams are presented and finally the first part of the essay is ended with a discussion of poetry slam as a poetic genre of its own. The second part starts by presenting and discussing the concept of aesthetic learning processes and how poetry slam might enable such processes. Poetry slam is then related to the Swedish subject syllabus for upper secondary school in order to analyse whether there is any rationale for poetry slam in Swedish teaching or not. Furthermore, poetry slam is related to literacy development, first by discussing creative writing and then by discussing oral performance. The results of the analysis shows that poetry slam is foremost motivated in Swedish teaching as a literary historical content, partly as an opportunity to work with oral performance, and also to cultivate students’ linguistic subjectivity. Poetry slam could possibly enable aesthetic learning processes, although it may be questioned whether poetry slam qualifies as an artistic community professional enough to provide artistic working methods. The very concept of a school poetry slam could also be seen as a contradiction, when considering the slam movement’s self image of counter culture, as schools themselves could be interpreted as dominant literary establishments. Possible pitfalls related to poetry slam in Swedish teaching are the competitive format’s effect on students socio-emotional safety and the scoring system that may be hazardous for students’ linguistic subjectivity. Also, poetry slam may not meet the curricular demands on rhetoric performances which are mandatory in the upper secondary school Swedish courses, and thus questions may be raised if oral poetic performances can be prioritised at the expense of oral rhetoric performances. Moreover, the free, creative space provided to students within creative writing processes puts high demands on the teacher balancing students’ creative freedom, in order to possibly articulate hidden knowledge, with making sure that students do not spend time procrastinating.

This thesis explores childhood, relationships, teaching, and god.

This project foregrounds the work and perspectives of spoken word poets of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) descent in connection to the NYC slam poetry scene. I trace the parallel racialization of MENA diaspora communities in the US and the development of slam poetry as a space for raising “othered” voices. Through ethnographic analysis, I consider slam poetry as a site of intersectional struggle, arguing that the engagement of MENA diaspora poets with this scene reveals the ways in which poetry both constitutes resistance to discursive violence through representation and works to mobilize audiences against tangible structures of violence.

In this dissertation, I use ethnographic observations, interviews, personal narrative, and analysis of youth slam poetry in conversation with theories of identification to demonstrate how members of the Tucson Youth Poetry Slam (TYPS) perform, inhabit, and develop a consciousness indicative of coalition and critical inquiry. TYPS poets demonstrate evidence of what I propose as critical latticework, an image and heuristic that brings together identificatory screen-work with rhizomatic and intersectional perspectives on growth and development. Through my analyses of poetry, interviews, and the activities of this youth slam community, I aim to illustrate the value of critical latticework as a perspective that can contribute to altering our perceptions of youth as developing in one direction, with one sense of healthy progression to adulthood. A critical lattice is another way of perceiving the activities of identification that take place in in-between-and-through-spaces, as well as the potential activism and labor occurring in those spaces, which act as more than screens but spaces of growth and significant chaos. I argue that an understanding of critical latticework is transferrable to writing classrooms, offering a practical image with which students of writing can imagine and move with fluidity to generate meaningful discourse and expand their perspectives on identity and writing.

Ottawa’s Capital Slam poetry scene has transformed over the past decade, marking a shift in the identities, discourses and performance styles of local poets. This thesis investigates these changes and trends within the time periods of 2008-2010 and 2012- 2014. This thesis demonstrates the shift from male poets of colour in 2008-2010 to female voices in 2012-2014 at Capital Slam, through an examination of Ottawa’s history and a multimodal critical discourse analysis of online performances. In particular, the creation of local alternative poetry shows over the past five years has increased the representation of female poets and transformed the racial dynamics of the scene. During the period 2008-2010 and 2012-2014, poets used key historical elements of slam poetry such as storytelling and speaking through personal experiences to effectively demonstrate how marginalized individuals can speak counter-narratives to dominant culture. The use of storytelling allowed these poets to engage, connect and dialogue with the audience, as well as demonstrate their different identities, discourses and performance styles.