It seem that some women seemed not to be
so marginalized. At the top of the list (and
an early read for me) is Kay Boyle, a novelist,
poet, political activist and educator... her
legacy's one of personal ponying-up and
her tireless dedication survives her death.
Literarywise, she remains an essential (although
often underrated) component of lit modernism. I
think this holds for her early experimental work
with the émigré avant-garde and for her later
poetry. She might well be studied as someone
who dowsed through those marginalizing times.
And example for now?
Gerald Schwartz
[log in to unmask]
> Any 'contribution to the discussion of how the techniques by which women
> were marginalised in 20C avante gard poetics' would be interesting &
> necessary, for sure. Certainly, I came to poetry through the men, & so my
> earliest influences were such male poets as Pound, Williams, yes Eliot of
> The Wasteland, & then Olson, Duncan, Creeley, & others of that ilk. But
> about teh same time, i did read Levertov, & in Canada, Webb, Avison, &
then
> more & more women mostly of my own generation. But those readings came as
> it happened, so to speak. The major critiques, & anthooogies, back in the
> 50s & 60s certainly suggested that the major poets were men. I would agree
> with Mark that that is not so much the case now. Certainly, one of the
> major influences on my own writing was Webb.
>
> But that marginalization did take place, & to find out how & to make sure
> it doesn't continue to happen, is important.
>
> I wouldn't be surprised that that battle is going to be harder for awhile,
> just as those to defend deomcracy, freedom of speech etc, & much else in
> the face of powerful forces attempting to turn back the clock...
>
> Doug
>
>
>
> Douglas Barbour
> Department of English
> University of Alberta
> Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
> (h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
>
> 'The Critic"
>
> I cannot possibly think of you
> other than you are: the assassin
>
> of my orchards. You lurk there
> in the shadows, meting out
>
> conversation like Eve's first
> confusion between penises and
>
> snakes. Oh be droll, be jolly
> and be temperate! Do not
>
> frighten me more than you
> have to! I must live forever.
>
> Frank O'Hara
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