Between Poet and (Self-)Critic: Scholarly Interventionism in Rachel Blau DuPlessis’s Drafts

摘要

In its engagement with lyric poetic modes, Rachel Blau DuPlessis’s long poem, Drafts, calls attention to the limiting gendered structures of the academic discourses that she negotiates as both a language-oriented poet and a feminist critic. The poem’s serial form promotes ongoing inquiry, and its use of citation gestures toward collaborative authorship. In this sense, Drafts may be considered as an alternative poetic-critical model of scholarship that promotes more inclusive ways of seeking knowledge. Importantly, Drafts’ scholarly interventionism hinges on the destabilization of DuPlessis’s authorial stance, with her highly reflexive poetics ultimately serving to engage the standard discursive practices that have mediated the critical interpretation of experimental women’s writing.