Page 1 |
Save page Remove page | Previous | 1 of 235 | Next |
|
small (250x250 max)
medium (500x500 max)
large ( > 500x500)
Full Resolution
All (PDF)
|
This page
All
Subset |
‘MACHINES MADE OF WORDS’
POETS, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE MEDIATION OF SUBJECTIVITY
AND
POMEGRANATE-EATER (POEMS)
by
Amaranth Borsuk
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(LITERATURE AND CREATIVE WRITING)
August 2010
Copyright 2010 Amaranth Borsuk
Object Description
| Title | 'Machines made of words': poets, technology, and the mediation of subjectivity; and, Pomegranate-eater (poems) |
| Author | Borsuk, Amaranth |
| Author email | aborsuk@usc.edu; amaranthb@gmail.com |
| Degree | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Document type | Dissertation |
| Degree program | Literature & Creative Writing |
| School | College of Letters, Arts and Sciences |
| Date defended/completed | 2010-05-05 |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Restricted until 21 Jul. 2012. |
| Date published | 2012-07-21 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | McCabe, Susan |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Braudy, Leo Muske-Dukes, Carol St. John, David Anderson, Steve |
| Abstract | “‘Machines Made of Words’: Poets, Technology, and the Mediation of Subjectivity” tracks poets’ attempts to re-envision the lyric impulse over the course of the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries, and demonstrates that inscription technologies have played a vital role in enabling them to do so. Looking in particular at the use of writing technologies by modernist poets between the First and Second World Wars, this dissertation argues that the poetic engagement with machines goes beyond technophilia to reveal a complex relationship between technology, the body, and constructions of authorship. By turning to technologies that mediate between the hand and the page, enhancing and extending their problematic bodies, the poets examined seek to undermine their own sense of authorship. This mediation paradoxically enables them to take on the authority necessary to keep writing despite their experience of fragmentation, thus reaffirming them as poets. Analyses of Blaise Cendrars’ use of the typewriter and H.D.’s projective mediumship presage digital mediation in contemporary conceptual and digital poetry by Ara Shirinyan, Ander Monson, Jer Thorpe, and Boris Müller. As we increasingly experience life within a data cloud, perceiving ourselves to be surrounded by language and information accessible to those with the proper technologies, the modernist notion of using machines to channel words from the ether takes on new resonance.; Pomegranate-Eater explores language itself as a medium that often interposes between the speaker and her meaning. Through interlingual play and an array of personas, the poems explore how language constructs and deconstructs us, reveling in the etymologies, homophones, and puns that push language to the boundary of materiality. |
| Keyword | poetry; modernism; spiritualism; technology; typewriter; projective mediumship; inspiration; new media; conceptual poetry; data; digital poetics |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m3203 |
| Rights | Borsuk, Amaranth |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | http://www.usc.edu/isd/libraries/services/ask_a_librarian/email/ |
| Filename | etd-Borsuk-3743 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume40/etd-Borsuk-3743.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Full text | ‘MACHINES MADE OF WORDS’ POETS, TECHNOLOGY, AND THE MEDIATION OF SUBJECTIVITY AND POMEGRANATE-EATER (POEMS) by Amaranth Borsuk A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (LITERATURE AND CREATIVE WRITING) August 2010 Copyright 2010 Amaranth Borsuk |
Comments
Post a Comment for Page 1
