With the Witnesses

Poetry, Compassion, and Claimed Experience

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Theory
Cover of the book With the Witnesses by Dale Tracy, MQUP
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Dale Tracy ISBN: 9780773550308
Publisher: MQUP Publication: June 9, 2017
Imprint: MQUP Language: English
Author: Dale Tracy
ISBN: 9780773550308
Publisher: MQUP
Publication: June 9, 2017
Imprint: MQUP
Language: English
While trauma theory has been adopted by contemporary literary and cultural studies as an ethical way to study depictions of suffering, there is a risk that its present use could cause more harm than good. By emphasizing inaccessible histories, unspeakable suffering, and unconscious witnessing, trauma theory may lead readers to claim others’ suffering through empathic identification. In With the Witnesses, Dale Tracy argues that poetry offers an alternative approach to engage with not only suffering in art but suffering in general. Examining the strategies of witness poetry, Tracy interrogates and reformulates the dominant models of trauma studies in which readers take over the witnessing position by identifying with the speaker as a witness. If the purpose of reading such poetry is to contribute to a chain of witnesses, what is the distinct role of a reader, and how does it differ from the role of the poem’s speaker? Tracy proposes that metonymy – a logic of nearness rather than likeness – is compassion’s formal manifestation. Analyzing poetry that emphasizes the contiguity of metonymy over the substitution of metaphor, she attends to the positions into which witnessing speakers invite readers. Poems that respond to diverse national and transnational contexts of atrocity, conflict, and marginalization guide With the Witnesses toward a compassionate response to suffering that involves feeling with – not as – another. Following each poem as a unique theory of compassion, With the Witnesses demonstrates that poems hold suffering signed as art, not claimable traces of suffering.
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
While trauma theory has been adopted by contemporary literary and cultural studies as an ethical way to study depictions of suffering, there is a risk that its present use could cause more harm than good. By emphasizing inaccessible histories, unspeakable suffering, and unconscious witnessing, trauma theory may lead readers to claim others’ suffering through empathic identification. In With the Witnesses, Dale Tracy argues that poetry offers an alternative approach to engage with not only suffering in art but suffering in general. Examining the strategies of witness poetry, Tracy interrogates and reformulates the dominant models of trauma studies in which readers take over the witnessing position by identifying with the speaker as a witness. If the purpose of reading such poetry is to contribute to a chain of witnesses, what is the distinct role of a reader, and how does it differ from the role of the poem’s speaker? Tracy proposes that metonymy – a logic of nearness rather than likeness – is compassion’s formal manifestation. Analyzing poetry that emphasizes the contiguity of metonymy over the substitution of metaphor, she attends to the positions into which witnessing speakers invite readers. Poems that respond to diverse national and transnational contexts of atrocity, conflict, and marginalization guide With the Witnesses toward a compassionate response to suffering that involves feeling with – not as – another. Following each poem as a unique theory of compassion, With the Witnesses demonstrates that poems hold suffering signed as art, not claimable traces of suffering.

More books from MQUP

Cover of the book Back to Beer...and Hockey by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Permanent State of Emergency by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Canada Among Nations, 2007 by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Leadership Under Fire, Second Edition by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Bethune in Spain by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book To Make a Difference by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Iroquois in the West by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Humboldt's Mexico by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Awkward Politics by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book After Evangelicalism by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Radical Gestures by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Unpacking the Kists by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book The Enigma of Perception by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Common Sense and Legal Judgment by Dale Tracy
Cover of the book Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge by Dale Tracy
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy