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The Poetics of Rae Armantrout

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The Poetics of Rae Armantrout Language Under Stress: The Poetics of Rae Armantrout “Poetry wants to make things mean more than they mean,” says someone, as if we knew how much things meant, and in what unit of measure. Rae Armantrout ‘Meant’ ~ Just Saying Briony Bennett-Mills UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON University of Southampton Research Repository Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis and, where applicable, any accompanying data are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis and the accompanying data cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content of the thesis and accompanying research data (where applicable) must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holder/s. When referring to this thesis and any accompanying data, full bibliographic details must be given, e.g. Thesis: Author (Year of Submission) "Full thesis title", University of Southampton, name of the University Faculty or School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Data: Author (Year) Title. URI [dataset] UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON FACULTY OF HUMANITIES School of English Language Under Stress: The Poetics of Rae Armantrout by Briony Lucy Bennett-Mills Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2018 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON ABSTRACT FACULTY OF HUMANITIES School of English Thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy LANGUAGE UNDER STRESS: THE POETICS OF RAE ARMANTROUT Briony Lucy Bennett-Mills This thesis explores the role of metaphor and scientific vision in the work of Rae Armantrout, drawing upon cognitive theories of metaphor and interlanguage. It suggests that Armantrout’s poetry offers a compelling opportunity to explore difficulties of language, particularly those that occur when poets use methods and metaphors typically associated with science. Chapter One sets out an Introduction to Armantrout’s work followed by Chapter Two, which then goes on to locate the origins of Armantrout’s poetics of inquiry and considers how her use of scientific and religious vision works alongside her personal origin stories to create a unique uncertainty. This uncertainty fosters an environment of inquiry and helps uncover what Armantrout labels the problem of ‘ventriloquy’. Chapter Three takes up this problem and asks whether Armantrout’s failure to avoid ‘the interventions of capitalism into consciousness’1 distances her writing from its Language writing origins and demonstrates an increased conflict between lyric and Language that arises from a growing interest in problems of self. Chapter Four applies theories of conceptual metaphor and conceptual integration networks to the poetry in Money Shot and Just Saying. It argues that these theories are the most fertile and relevant for the analysis of Armantrout’s poetry. By engaging with scientific language and vision in her use of hyper-extended metaphor, Armantrout’s readers are forced to create new connections from ‘foreign’ rules and associations. Chapter Five adapts the linguistics concept of Interlanguage in order to navigate these difficulties and demonstrates how Armantrout’s use of science and metaphor contributes to the formation of a new poetic Interlanguage. In conclusion, this thesis will consider whether Armantrout’s poetry offers a valuable method of creating accessibility and understanding in the claims given by both science and poetry by paralleling the action of metaphor: thinking of one in terms of another to find, destroy and create connections. 1 Rae Armantrout and Singing Horse Press, Collected Prose, (San Diego: Singing Horse Press, 2007), p. 120. Table of Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................... i Table of Contents ................................................................................................................... iii Table of Figures........................................................................................................................ v DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP ................................................................................. vii Acknowledgements .............................................................................................................. viii Definitions and Abbreviations ............................................................................................... ix Chapter One: Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Language Under Stress ........................................................................................................ 1 1.2 The ‘Slippery Slope’ of Language ....................................................................................... 7 1.3 Conceptual Metaphor and Interlanguage ........................................................................... 13 1.4 Poetry and Science: Interactions and Criticism ................................................................. 16 1.5 Language Writing and Contemporary American Poetry ................................................... 23 1.6 The Historical Relationship Between Science and Poetry ................................................. 26 1.7 Thesis Outline .................................................................................................................... 32 Chapter Two: ‘Ventriloquy is the Mother Tongue’: Unravelling Explanation ............... 35 2.1 Exploration not Explanation .............................................................................................. 40 2.2 Science as Mythology ........................................................................................................ 41 2.3 The Illusion of Certainty .................................................................................................... 47 2.4 The Origins of Armantrout’s Poetics of Inquiry ................................................................ 51 Chapter Three: ‘How [do you] distinguish one / light from the next?’ Language and the Individual in Versed ................................................................................................. 72 3.1 Versed ................................................................................................................................ 73 3.2 The Swerve of Language and Lyric in Versed ................................................................... 78 3.3 Cognitive Poetics and Conceptual Integration Network Theory ....................................... 86 3.4 Cognitive Poetics ............................................................................................................... 87 3.5 Conceptual Integration Networks ...................................................................................... 90 3.6 Conceptual Integration Network Theory in Versed ........................................................... 93 3.7 Conceptual Integration in Armantrout ............................................................................... 95 Chapter Four: Towards a New Cognitive Method ........................................................... 116 4.1 Attention, Memes, and Metaphor in Money Shot ........................................................... 124 4.2 Hyper-Extended Metaphor and Metaphor Theory ........................................................... 133 iii 4.3 Interaction Theory ............................................................................................................ 136 4.4 Hyper-Extended Metaphor in Money Shot and Just Saying ............................................ 141 Chapter Five: Interlanguage: Poetry Speaking in Science .............................................. 160 5.1 Interlanguage.................................................................................................................... 166 5.2 Scientific Language ......................................................................................................... 169 5.3 Register Analysis ............................................................................................................. 169 5.4 Stylistic Features of Scientific English ............................................................................ 170 5.5 Poetic Interlanguage in Itself ........................................................................................... 173 5.6 Particle Physics and Poetic Interlanguage in Itself .......................................................... 174 Chapter Six: Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 194 Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 205 Appendix A ........................................................................................................................... 206 Glossary of Terms ................................................................................................................ 211 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 213 iv Table of Figures Figure 1: ‘Conceptual Blends’ - Gilles Fauconnier .................................................................. 92 Figure
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