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Durham E-Theses The contemporary long poem : spatial practice in the work of Kamau Brathwaite and Derek Walcott; Ed Dorn and Susan Howe; Robert Kroetsch and Daphne Marlatt. Thurgar-Dawson, Christopher Paul Joseph How to cite: Thurgar-Dawson, Christopher Paul Joseph (1998) The contemporary long poem : spatial practice in the work of Kamau Brathwaite and Derek Walcott; Ed Dorn and Susan Howe; Robert Kroetsch and Daphne Marlatt., Durham theses, Durham University. 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Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 THE CONTEMPORARY LONG POEM Spatial Practice in the Work of Kamau Brathwaite and Derek Walcott; Ed Dorn and Susan Howe; Robert ICroetsch and Daphne Marlatt Christopher Paul Joseph Thurgar-Dawson Thesis submitted for the Degree of PhD University of Durham, Department of English Studies The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the written consent of the author and information derived from it should be acknowledged. UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM 1998 2 4 FEB MB Let us space. The art of this text is the air it causes to circulate between its screens. The chainings are invisible, everything seems im- provised or juxtaposed. This text induces by agglutinating rather than by demonstrating, by coupling and uncoupling, gluing and ungluing rather than by exhibiting the continuous, and analogical, instructive, suffocating necessity of a discursive rhetoric. — Derrida, Glas 75 CONTENTS sn-• List of Figures iii Abstract iv Declaration v Acknowledgements vi Note on the Text vii Abbreviations viil General Introduction: The Long Poem and Spatial Practice 1 PART I: CARIBBEAN SPATIAL PRACTICE Introduction 20 1 Productive Choropoetics: The Production of Space in 25 Edward Kamau Brathwaite's "Second New World Trilogy" 2 Landscape Choropoetics: Another Life for Poetry, 59 Space and Landscape in the work of Derek Walcott PART II: AMERICAN SPATIAL PRACTICE Introduction 95 3 Consumer Choropoetics: Readers, Tourists and the 100 Reception of Space in Ed Dorn's Gunslinger 4 Chronological Choropoetics: Timing Space and Spacing 137 Time in Susan Howe's Pythagorean Silence PART III: CANADIAN PLACIAL PRACTICE Introduction 178 5 Topographical Choropoetics: Mapping the Failures of 183 Place in Robert Kroetsch's Completed Field Notes 6 Gendering Choropoetics: Feminist and Future Geographies 218 of Place in Daphne Marlatt's Steveston Conclusion 253 Notes 258 Select Bibliography 279 Bibliography 280 II LIST OF FIGURES - Figure 1. Models of Spatial Diffusion Maps 169 Figure 2. Spatial Diffusion Map 1: Parenthesis 170 Figure 3. Spatial Diffusion Map 2: Capitalization 171 Figure 4. Spatial Diffusion Map 3: White Space 172 111 ABSTRACT Christopher Thurgar-Daw son The Contemporary Long Poem: Spatial Practice in the Work of Kamau Brathwaite and Derek Walcott; Ed Dorn and Susan Howe; Robert Kroetsch and Daphne Marlatt PhD, University of Durham, 1998 The key to understanding the contemporary long poem lies in its use of spatial practices. Since recent long poems employ an identifiable set of six spatial practices, it is possible to attach a new label to this technique: "choropoetics." The best way for readers to approach the texts is directly through the analysis of their choropoetics. This new interpretive mode can be called a "chorological reading practice." Part I explores the spatial practices at work in two Caribbean long poems. Chapter 1 makes a Lefebvrean "triadic" reading of Brathwaite's trilogy Mother Poem, Sun Poem, and X/Self through social geography whilst chapter 2 converts Chris Fitter's "matrices of landscape perception" into an environmental geography for Walcott's Another Life. Part II moves to America but retains spatial materialism as its organizing concept. Whereas chapter 3 surveys the geography of consumption to make a touristic and Parmenidean reading of Dorn's Gunslinger, chapter 4 uses contextual theory and time-geography to interpret the space-time dimensions of Howe's Pythagorean Silence. Part III focuses on place and placial practices in two Canadian long poems. Chapter 5 confronts geographical theories of "non-place" and "placelessness" in order to explore the topography of Kroetsch's Completed Field Notes and chapter 6 approaches Marlatt's Steveston as a feminist geography and as a Geographical Information System. Each study in the thesis founds a new core element of "choropoetics" — the writing of regional space into a long poem form. These comprise: the production of space; landscape and space; the consumption of space; space-time; topography; and the gendering of place. The thesis aims to correlate literary and geographical critical practices. iv DECLARATION Oh. This thesis is the original work of the author except where indicated by reference, and no part of the thesis has been previously submitted for a degree in this or any other university. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without the author's prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS With thanks to the following for their advice and encouragement: John Bak, Gordon Brown, Ric Caddel, Mike and Clare Cain, Colleen Emann, Debbie and Ian Greenhaugh, Ben Knights, Karl Nicholas, Maggie Nolan, Don Sparling, Lucy Shedden, Sarah Tully and Paul Whittaker. And institutional thanks to staff, students and friends at: the British Association for Canadian Studies (BACS); Development of University English Teaching (DUET); the British Council (Olomouc and Prague); the National Library of Scotland; the British Library; the Northern Poetry Library; Durham University Library; Waterstones Booksellers (Durham and Newcastle); the Basil Bunting Centre; and the Morden Tower. Three of the chapters initially took shape at conferences: Palacky University (Brathwaite), Brno University (Marlatt) and the University of Wales, Swansea (Kroetsch). Many thanks to all involved for their comments and suggestions. Financial thanks to the Department of English Studies at Durham University for a Departmental Postgraduate Award in 1997/98 and to the English and Cultural Studies Section at Teesside University for two generous travel awards. Also special thanks to the students of my two long poem modules at Palacky University, 1995- 96 - Na Zdravi! Which leaves my supervisors Sean Burke and Diana Collecott who have helped at every stage of the work with care, patience and generosity. The thesis is dedicated to Christine vi NOTE ON THE TEXT 1••• MLA Style The thesis is written in MLA style using endnotes for substantive material and abbreviations for frequently cited texts. Abbreviations are listed by chapter on the following two pages. Cross-references are contained in the endnotes. Long quotations append the name of the author where it may be unclear from the context of the argument. Ed Dorn's long poem Gunslinger (chapter 3) contains a character called "I." To avoid confusion I have used quotation marks around this name. Citation of the Long Poem The exaggerated length of the long poem line presents particular difficulties for accurate quotation if correct page-space is to be reproduced. Rather than adjust fonts I have chosen where required (chapter 6) to release the right-hand margin in order to preserve the integrity of the material quoted. The referencing convention for long poems is simply to cite the whole page number where the specific text occurs. No line numbers are given. Greek Alphabet The characters of the Greek alphabet have been reproduced as follows: alpha a nu v beta 13 xi § gamma y omicron o delta 6 pi n epsilon E rho r zeta z sigma 0 eta n tau I theta 0 upsilon u iota i phi 4> kappa k chi X lambda 1 psi co mu p omega w vii ABBREVIATIONS .10.• CHAPTER 1: BRATHWAITE CD Michael Havinden and David Meredith, Colonialism and Development: Britain and its Tropical Colonies, 1850-1960 (London: Routledge, 1993) MP Mother Poem (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1977) PS Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991) R Roots (Michigan: Ann Arbour, 1993) SP Sun Poem (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1982) XS X/Self (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987) CHAPTER 2: WALCOTT AL Another Life (London: Cape, 1973) HHG Derek Gregory and Rex Walford, eds. Horizons in Human Geography (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1989) L Richard Payne Knight, The Landscape: A Didactic Poem in Three Books (1795), facsimile of 2nd edition (Farnborough: Gregg, 1972) PSL Chris Fitter, Poetry, Space, Landscape: Toward a New Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995) CHAPTER 3: DORN G Gunslinger (Durham, NC: Duke, 1989) IR Donald Wesling, ed. Internal Resistances: the Poetry of Edward Dorn (Berkeley, CA: U of California P, 1985) P Leonardo Taran, Parmenides (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1965) PEL Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life (Berkeley, CA: U of California