15 - The Future of Poetry Studies

Summary

Poetry scholars frequently state that form and content are not separable. Yet they continue to read poetry by minority writers primarily as ethnographic reportage. While many avant-garde poets can deftly address language’s imbrication with capitalism and hold forth on issues of class (and, at times, gender), the issue of race and – horrors – racism has too often been deflected by such coded (or not so coded) putdowns as “identity politics,” “autobiographical writing,” or “expressivity.” The “New Formalism” occludes an entire tradition of black thought that has engaged with the problem of form and larger sociopolitical structures. This chapter maps out crucial tasks for twenty-first-century poetry scholars, including archival recovery work; decentering white poets; looking to alternative models of poetics; questioning “neutral” poetics; engaging in concrete acts of anti-racism; decolonizing and desegregating the field.