Russell Edson by Nathan Gale
I used “Structural Politics: The Prose Poetry of Russell Edson” by Lee Upton because after reading the article I realized that it not only discussed my topic but went further into other aspects closely related to the phycology and social aspects found in Edson's poetry. As well as giving a broader account on, aesthetics, politics, structure and form of Russell Edson's poetry. This helped fill in details, such as why he uses the structure of prose poetry to enhance the symbols and motifs. For example in his poem “The House of Sara Loo” Lee Upton states Edson uses a woman with the body of a house to depict the a woman's womb as a sort of “home” to which man springs from and returns.
Not only does it go into great detail on the history of prose poetry, the article quotes from other poets and academics such as Donald Hall, Denise Levertov and Robert Bly. That guided me to find more essays and articles written on Russell Edson
Until then I though Russell Edsons poems primarily were Freudian routines, and after reading the article realized they run much deeper depicting modern politics and social enigmas in American culture. Such as women's rights, gender roles and racism in society.
The essay helped me formulate a research thesis or question: How does Russell Edson uses the prose poetry to describe various conditions and affects of phycology, politics, and sociology? From this question I was able to gleam and pick out certain parts of the text to follow through on, such as Edsons use of absurd, satire and fabulists acts to intensify and magnify reality to create meaning.
After searching for essays on Russell Edson on Google and other common search engines I found only vague discussions of his work, that were quite often amateur. So I used Jstor from the CCA library website in order to find genuine academic articles such as this one that were much more concise and to the point and answered my question.
Quotes I found in the article to back up my question were as follows: “Beyond his concern with genre, Edson’s discomfort with traditional form is demonstrated by his preoccupation with social structure.” “Edson suggests that the “spell” of violent power must be broken through our self-conscious awareness of the constructed form of the page itself, a knowledge of artifice that may interrupt the ceaseless narratives of conventional power.”
“Beyond his concern with genre, Edson’s discomfort with traditional form is demonstrated by his preoccupation with social structure.” This quote was useful as it explained to me that Edsons poems are not based in “traditional forms” of poetry but by a awareness of social oder and how it can effect the way poetry is written. Using topics such as physiology and social aspects as a formula frees him from having to condense and fit these issues into standard poetic forms. This quote helped me elaborate on how the phycology and sociology plays an integral role in the process of Russell Edsons poetry, there by answering in part my question.
Great source, Nathan! And it sounds like it led you to others. I'm pleased with your attention to the quality of these sources--you seem to be on the right track.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of focusing on Edson's use of the prose poem form, and you seem to be getting into the question with some serious focus.
Careful when you use things like "psychology" (watch your sp)and "sociology" play an integral role in Edson's poetry. Of course these two things are academic disciplines of study and don't really play any role in Edson's poetry. However, Edson DOES seem to focus on psychological states and sociological conditions as sites of power relations. My point is, Edson's work functions independently of these things--he doesn't use them as techniques. However, he may use them as objects of description and images for his work. See the difference?
Overall, good work!
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