TY - CHAP

T1 - Translating the in-between

T2 - literatures of performance and the relationship between language, literature and society

AU - Crawshaw, Robert

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - The essay analyses the linguistic structure of a dramatic poem ‘The Story of M.’, scripted by the Black Manchester-based poet SuAndi. The poem offers a retrospective description of the social conditions of life in Northern Britain experienced by a mother and daughter of mixed racial and national origin. The essay considers the relationship between poetry, history, personal experience and social reality. It offers an alternative to viewing literature either as a mimetic representation of real life or as the symbolic distillation of a moment in history. Instead, following Voloshinov (1928) and Thibault (1991), it posits an approach to poetry, and especially to poetry in performance, in which the text engages the reader/audience in a dynamic dialogue whilst at the same time quoting and commenting on itself. Through this process, the poem becomes an active constituent of the reality it depicts. The interaction between narrative frames and the extensive use of parataxis positions the reader as an interlocutor in an insider/outsider relationship with the protagonists and with the events whichhave conditioned their upbringing.

AB - The essay analyses the linguistic structure of a dramatic poem ‘The Story of M.’, scripted by the Black Manchester-based poet SuAndi. The poem offers a retrospective description of the social conditions of life in Northern Britain experienced by a mother and daughter of mixed racial and national origin. The essay considers the relationship between poetry, history, personal experience and social reality. It offers an alternative to viewing literature either as a mimetic representation of real life or as the symbolic distillation of a moment in history. Instead, following Voloshinov (1928) and Thibault (1991), it posits an approach to poetry, and especially to poetry in performance, in which the text engages the reader/audience in a dynamic dialogue whilst at the same time quoting and commenting on itself. Through this process, the poem becomes an active constituent of the reality it depicts. The interaction between narrative frames and the extensive use of parataxis positions the reader as an interlocutor in an insider/outsider relationship with the protagonists and with the events whichhave conditioned their upbringing.

M3 - Chapter

SN - 9781137429698

BT - From literature to cultural literacy

A2 - Segal, Naomi

A2 - Koleva, Daniela

PB - Palgrave Macmillan

CY - Basingstoke

ER -