"The Skin of Another": Empathetic Dissonance in Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Poetry after Crisis

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dc.contributor.advisorWeaver, Andrew
dc.creatorVeprinska, Anna
dc.date.accessioned2018-08-27T16:29:21Z
dc.date.available2018-08-27T16:29:21Z
dc.date.copyright2018-01-25
dc.date.issued2018-08-27
dc.date.updated2018-08-27T16:29:21Z
dc.degree.disciplineEnglish
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation examines the representation of empathy in contemporary poetry after crisis, specifically poetry after the Holocaust, the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, and Hurricane Katrina. Through comparative close readings merged with interdisciplinary theory from philosophy, psychology, cultural theory, history and literary theory, and trauma studies, I juxtapose a genocide, a terrorist act, and a natural disaster amplified by racial politics and human disregard in order to consider empathy from multiple perspectives, in a range of cultural and political milieus. The events that I examine and their consequences are themselves, at least in part, a result of a lack of empathy on the part of perpetrators and bystanders. As such, my dissertation questions what happens to empathy in poetry after events at the limits of empathy. At the same time, I consider the potential of empathy to act as what Jonathan Boyarin, in his Storm from Paradise: The Politics of Jewish Memory, labels symbolic violence: by shifting the emotional focus from the receiver of empathy to oneself, the empathizer may appropriate the others emotional stance. Significantly, texts that engage with violent events, such as the ones that my research forefronts, must be doubly wary of the violent possibilities of empathy, as these possibilities can reaffirm the historical relations between victim and perpetrator. I argue that, recognizing both the possibilities and dangers of empathy, the texts that I consider variously invite and refuse empathy. These works display, thus, what I term empathetic dissonance. My research proposes that empathetic dissonance in the poems that I examine reflects the texts struggle with the question of the value and possibility of empathy in the face of the crises to which these texts respond. The three chapters The Unsaid, The Unhere, and The Ungod that make up my dissertation consider empathetic dissonance through language, witnessing, and theology, respectively. Some of the poets whose works my research engages include Charlotte Delbo, Dionne Brand, Niyi Osundare, Charles Reznikoff, Robert Fitterman, Wisawa Szymborska, Cynthia Hogue, Claudia Rankine, Paul Celan, Dan Pagis, Lucille Clifton, and Katie Ford.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/34959
dc.language.isoen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subject.keywordsContemporary poetry
dc.subject.keywordsEmpathy
dc.subject.keywordsEmpathetic dissonance
dc.subject.keywordsHolocaust
dc.subject.keywords9/11
dc.subject.keywordsHurricane Katrina
dc.subject.keywordsPoetry
dc.subject.keywordsTwentieth-century poetry
dc.subject.keywordsTwenty-first-century poetry
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican literature
dc.subject.keywordsAmerican poetry
dc.subject.keywordsHolocaust poetry
dc.subject.keywordsHolocaust studies
dc.subject.keywordsTrauma studies
dc.subject.keywordsCrisis
dc.subject.keywordsCrisis literature
dc.subject.keywordsCrisis poetry
dc.subject.keywordsPoetry after crisis
dc.subject.keywordsCharlotte Delbo
dc.subject.keywordsDionne Brand
dc.subject.keywordsNiyi Osundare
dc.subject.keywordsCharles Reznikoff
dc.subject.keywordsRobert Fitterman
dc.subject.keywordsWisława Szymborska
dc.subject.keywordsCynthia Hogue
dc.subject.keywordsClaudia Rankine
dc.subject.keywordsPaul Celan
dc.subject.keywordsDan Pagis
dc.subject.keywordsLucille Clifton
dc.subject.keywordsKatie Ford
dc.title"The Skin of Another": Empathetic Dissonance in Twentieth and Twenty-First-Century Poetry after Crisis
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

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