When Poets Write About Poets: Representation(s) of the Poet and Poetry in Poetic Works (NeMLA, Baltimore)

When Poets Write About Poets: Representation(s) of the Poet and Poetry in Poetic Works

NeMLA, Baltimore

From the very first traces of written poetry, poets have been inspired by their peers: whether with elegies, odes or allusions to the poets they admired, they have always incorporated figures of poets and other poetic texts in their own poems. Intertextuality abound from the classical texts (quotations, sources and models) by earlier poets, for instance Ovid, Virgil or Cato. Some of their contemporaries, like Tacitus, have questioned the ideologies of their predecessors. Closer to us, Milton in his 16-line “On Shakespeare” (1630) argues that no monument is a suitable tribute to Shakespeare’s oeuvre; Thomas Gray pays himself homage to Milton in “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” (1751). Not long ago, Amanda Gorman picked up the torch and gave her own vision of the power of Poetry, for example in “In the Place (An American Lyric)” (2015).

This panel shall be a place to question the representations of poets and poetry in poetic works. What is at stake when the poet conjures up the figure of the poet (or of a precise poet)? Is it a mere name-dropping, a simple reference, a heartfelt tribute, a way to define oneself by referring to other poets? When a poet broaches the topic of Poetry, is this a reflection on what he or she is creating, on the impact of poetry, its place in the world? Whether a matter of building one’s own poetic identity or welcoming the Other within one’s poetic creation, representations of poet(s) and Poetry cannot but draw our attention. We welcome papers from any geographic area and any historical era.

Please submit your abstract through the NeMLA website.

You will be asked to register (for free) at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/Login.

Then look for session 19403 and submit your abstract.