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The Objectification of Poetry: Textiles, Maps, Documents, and Margins in the Postwar American Avant-Garde Sarah Hannan Arkebauer Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Sarah Hannan Arkebauer All rights reserved ABSTRACT The Objectification of Poetry: Textiles, Maps, Documents, and Margins in the Postwar American Avant-Garde Sarah Hannan Arkebauer My dissertation charts the ways poets understand and articulate how history works through their study of material objects. I trace how the material contours of these objects inform and inflect habits of reading by constituting a privileged kind of poetic form, building first on their physical attributes before opening into the metaphorical implications and resonances of the objects in literary study. I have termed my readings “objectifications” because they offer an active account of how material objects come to be understood and used, and the political and ethical implications of their various applications. Within and across the chapters, I argue that material objects help readers rethink the relationship between language and the world it seeks to describe. My use of the term “objectification” captures both a process and a result, interrogating objects not as simple tools but as dynamic systems of signification that reveal unstable relations between subjects and objects. My project demonstrates that the avant-garde’s objectification of poetry is an indispensable principle of language: the diverse materialities of textiles, maps, documents, and margins shape these poems’ syntactic structures and internal relations, composing the hidden yet vital conceptual-material latticework upon which their words hang. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................................. ii INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER ONE: TEXTILES ...................................................................................................... 22 CHAPTER TWO: MAPS ............................................................................................................. 79 CHAPTER THREE: DOCUMENTS ......................................................................................... 138 CHAPTER FOUR: MARGINS .................................................................................................. 138 CODA ......................................................................................................................................... 251 BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................................... 255 i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have many people to thank for their support: first and foremost my committee, who offered feedback both generous and rigorous over the many years of writing this dissertation. Despite the fact that so much of this project has required me to work against the plausible deniability of the ineffable, to insist on explanations for what might otherwise be written off as indescribable, I am still not fully able to put into words the import of Eleanor Johnson’s guidance in all things. My gratitude for her attention to aesthetics, her phosphorescent adverbs, and her scrupulous commitment to form is endless. Peter Nicholls adroitly shepherded this project from the kernel of an idea it was during the preparation for my oral examination to its final state today. I am grateful for how unfailingly energizing our conversations have been these past several years. Michael Golston’s keen editorial eye and insistence on clarity pushed this project through a panoply of earlier, less-suited frameworks — I take full responsibility for the mixed metaphors that remain. I thank Craig Dworkin for his unstinting enthusiasm as this project progressed to its later stages, and for being encouraging of even my more far-fetched ideas. I thank Charles Bernstein for his steadfast support and for indelibly shaping how I encounter both the difficult poem and the question of poetry entirely. I thank Denise Cruz for reading the version presented here and for the warmth and rigor she has brought to the Americanist Colloquium. I owe much of this project to conversations and classes with many members of the Columbia Department of English and Comparative Literature. Among them, Alan Stewart offered crucial logistical counsel, Julie Crawford taught me how to teach, and Jenny Davidson was a source of continual inspiration in the active practice of writing. Anahid Nersessian provided generous feedback, key encouragement, and constant inspiration. At Penn, Bob Perelman introduced me to the long history of the American avant-garde and has provided me ii with generous and thoughtful support throughout my study of it. I am grateful for the model of his mentorship. I also would be remiss not to thank the community at the Kelly Writers House, especially Michelle Taransky, Jessica Lowenthal, Sarah Dowling, Julia Bloch, Danny Snelson, Lily Appelbaum, Jamie-Lee Josselyn, and Al Filreis who encouraged and nurtured my early interest in experimental poetry, inspiring me to further and deeper study. This project benefited from institutional support in various forms: the cozy community of the Americanist Colloquium — Aaron Ritzenberg, Matt Sandler, Rachel Adams, Austin Graham, Denise Cruz, Liz Bowen, Marty Larson Xu, and Phil Polefrone — generously read various drafts of this work. Workshopping and feedback in Placement Seminar helped me coalesce the larger stakes of this project. Funding from Columbia for archival research fundamentally expanded the frame of my insights, and advice from Karla Nielsen helped me put that research into perspective. Carlos Alonso, Andrea Solomon, Pam Rodman, Aaron Robertson, and Nicole Meily provided key administrative support. The Columbia Writing Center, the GSAS Dissertation Writers Studio, and their respective retreats and staff (thanks to Kate Daloz, Jason Ueda, and especially Kristen Martin) were a crucial resource in the labor of creating this project. And on that score: profound thanks to the Graduate Workers of Columbia (GWC-UAW Local 2110). I must also thank my friends who unfailingly brought out the best in my work and in me. Kimberly Takahata was the dream accountabilibuddy. Liz Bowen was a consistently cathartic interlocutor whose attention to the poetics of memes is as unparalleled as it is disciplined. Marty Larson-Xu was an ideal subfield companion who enthusiastically pushed my own insights, all while being a purveyor of the finest teas and candies and the best eastern exposure in Morningside. Thanks to Brandon Wilner for so many good conversations about poetry and so many good jams for writing about it. John Kuhn, fount of institutional knowledge, blazed a trail iii and kept me well informed of everything that could come to pass. Encouragement from Seth Williams was a motivation and an inspiration. Nick Mayer championed aesthetic experience and Rosa Schneider offered crucial solidarity. I am the wiser for Zach Roberts’s wide-reaching commitment to the humanities. Marshall Bright and Shelby Luke have been exemplary best friends. Rachel Selvin and Kevin Cotter kept me aware of what else literature can be, Lindsay Gibson did the same for writing. Sarah Cockrum fielded all sorts of cockamamie legal questions as I sought to tease out aesthetic insight from legal fact. Conversations and collaborations with Davy Knittle quite simply reminded me what it is that I love about poetry. Without Ben VanWagoner’s eye for structure and ear for outrage, this project and I would have been in much rougher shape. I thank him for his knowledge of electrical wiring, probability, and how to catch the best light. I am in awe of Kate McIntyre’s emotional literacy, capacity for naming affects, and commitment to the ethics of the work that we do. Without her intellectual rigor and the depth of her friendship this project would not exist as it currently does. Gabriel Bloomfield’s remarkable friendship has been an extraordinary gift in all ways — I could not have done this without him. Kevin Windhauser and his unflinching encouragement came at just the right time. I am the better for the strength of his care. The love and support of my family has made possible my studies since childhood. My father, Timothy Arkebauer, along with Mary and Michael Sullivan, provided a sterling example of responsible scholarship that balances a commitment to the academy with an appreciation of life outside it. My mother, Eileen Cunningham, who taught me how to read, kept everything in larger perspective. Rachel and Andrew kept everything real. iv This dissertation is fondly dedicated to the memory of HERBERT J. ARKEBAUER and DOROTHY H. CUNNINGHAM whose lives and legacies cleared a path for my study v Introduction In a document dated September 24, 2003 fourteen-year-old Trisha Low of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, Great Britain declares her Last Will & Testament.1 She lays out five articles: Preliminary Declarations, Specific Bequests and Devises, Executor and Administrative Powers, Guardianship Provisions, Testamentary Trusts for Minor Child(ren), as well as a section of General Provisions. Although her will follows a legal template, it is anything but straightforward. Not only is this will immediately invalidated — it is but
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