Graduation Year
2018
Document Type
Campus Only Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
English
Reader 1
Warren Liu
Reader 2
Aaron Matz
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
© 2017 Rose B. Conlon
Abstract
This thesis argues that Claudia Rankine's two American lyrics destabilize the subject-object dialectic underwriting American lyricism. First, I consider Don’t Let Me Be Lonely’s rejection of spectatorship, insofar as spectatorship objectifies the suffering of the Other. Second, I analyze Citizen’s subversion of the lyric “I”, particularly as it vocalizes the “you”-position traditionally relegated to poetic object. I suggest that both works, by returning power to the object, manifest an aesthetic disruption to the racially-based power dialectic underpinning American lyric tradition. Eventually, I propose that Rankine mobilizes the poem as a future-space for the realization of an ideal politics.
Recommended Citation
Conlon, Rose B., "Toward a New American Lyric: Form as Protest in Claudia Rankine" (2018). Scripps Senior Theses. 1077.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/1077
This thesis is restricted to the Claremont Colleges current faculty, students, and staff.
