To be a poet.

摘要

This qualitative dissertation will use narrative psychology and biographical methods to explore the role art plays in the processes of living. I will present biographical portraits and critical analyses of three living New York City poets identified with the second generation of the so-called New York School of Poetry. I am interested in (1) the factors surrounding the emergence of artistic identity; (2) the "grammar" of the work produced; and (3) the way of being in the world (Stein, 1926) that the work engenders. I am especially interested in gauging the degree to which writing a certain kind of poem (or kinds of poems) offers the writer psychological utility. Conceptually, I will draw upon the narrative work of Paul Ricoeur, and the work of Ludwig Wittgenstein, who insisted that "to imagine a language means to imagine a form of life." It is hoped that this dissertation will offer research and applied psychology a framework for thinking about the role art can play in the experience of selfhood and identity.