Traditionally, ecopoetics has been interested in texts whose primary goal is to explore place, or locations that are imbued with human meaning or culture, as a solution to the problem of human alienation from the nonhuman world. While this work is valuable, placemaking alone is insufficient to meet contemporary needs, and as a result poetry which explores space, or the nonhuman that resists human understanding, is needed. To this end I describe a lineage of spatially-engaged, experimental American poetics that is consistent with contemporary ecocritical practice. First I examine Charles Olson, who rejected the possibility of simple, mimetic language in favor of deliberately constructed ways of understanding the world through myth, giving us postmodernism. Following Olson, James Schuyler's even stronger acceptance of limitation in language is coupled with a total acceptance of the way things are and an avant-garde writing style, leaving us with not just a constructed world, but a postnatural one. Intensifying both the suspicion of both language and its users is Lyn Hejinian, whose challenging of the way nature constructs its users asks us to reconfigure both the world and humans. The result of this challenge is to create a posthuman nonidentity in response to a spatial world. Through this traumatic experience, readers learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable: to be posthumans in a spatial environment. The result is a significant opportunity for what Timothy Morton calls "dark ecology": a way of maintaining solidarity with a damaged, toxic, hostile planet. Through reading spatial ecopoetics, posthumans can find ways to live in and identify with the 21st century's postnatural world. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 19, 2013. / contemporary poetry, ecocriticism, ecopoetics, Hejinian, Lyn, Olson, Charles,
Schuyler, James / Includes bibliographical references. / Andrew Epstein, Professor Directing Dissertation; Frederick Davis, University Representative; Leigh Edwards, Committee Member; Eric Walker, Committee Member; Paul Outka, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183855 |
| Contributors | Pearson, Amber (authoraut), Epstein, Andrew (professor directing dissertation), Davis, Frederick (university representative), Edwards, Leigh (committee member), Walker, Eric (committee member), Outka, Paul (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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