 |
 |
David, yes I’d added the negative in that sentence. As I said it’s not an area I feel qualified to comment on. I’d say it’s a general affliction of poets to feel overlooked, common even to those we might feel have received an undue amount of attention. And there’s often a reality to it, when the media only bother if there’s a large cash prize or a squalid quarrel involved. It’s all a bit speculative as the conditionals in your 2nd paragraph register, so it might be worth hearing from someone who has some real evidence of exclusion. When you say such a poet - ignored, uninvited, and old to boot (though 40 sounds young to me!) - ‘may as well pack up and go home’, my response is that (apart from the age) this is the condition in which all poets begin, and most continue. It goes with the territory so you keep on only if it matters enough to you. Jamie > On 10 Jan 2018, at 21:38, David Lace <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > I should have said: > > So because of this it would be very easy for an “outsider avantgarde” poet, who had no links to academia, no academic contacts or academically affiliated peer-group network to not be noticed by academia. > > and not: > > So because of this it would be very easy for an “outsider avantgarde” poet, who had no links to academia, no academic contacts or academically affiliated peer-group network to be noticed by academia. > > > > > > > -----------------------------Original Message------------------------ > > David Lace wrote: > > Jamie, I think you are right in saying ‘What we’re calling the avant-garde does seem to have a far higher profile with regard to critical articles, research etc. so perhaps it’s there that the exclusion for some is more keenly felt.’ I think this aspect is a good measuring tool to gauge things with. Mainstream poetry doesn’t seem to have an equivalent set of yardsticks—or if it does it is never seen as such. > > So because of this it would be very easy for an “outsider avantgarde” poet, who had no links to academia, no academic contacts or academically affiliated peer-group network to be noticed by academia. And should he/she try to “break-in” to all of this he/she would probably be seen as a “gatecrasher” who hasn’t “properly gone through the system (avantgarde postgraduate writing courses, going to avantgarde academic conferences, reading their poems at “sanctioned” avantgarde poetry readings and informal avantgarde poetry reading get-togethers etc). He/she would stand no chance of any a consideration. > > And as Robert alluded to earlier, if the said poet was also “the wrong age”—over 40, he/she may as well pack-up and go home. It is probably no coincidence that most (if not all) newly recognised avantgarde poets are young, as it is predominantly the young who go through the higher education system. > > So all of this has a lot to do with class, age and which avantgarde academic peer group network you are part of. I can’t put it all down, as Peter alluded to, to just one or two university tutors giving their favourite students a helping hand. That sort of thing does go on, but isn’t that significant to this wider problem.