AWP Panel

Friday- April 9, 2010 1:30 p.m.-4:00 p.m.
Room 110
Colorado Convention Center, Street Level
F198. Immigrant Poetry: Aesthetics of Displacement. (Gene Tanta, Jenny Boully, Johannes Goransson, Ramona Uritescu-Lombard, Andrei Guruianu, Uche Nduka) We will discuss the relations between formal innovation and biographical politics. More specifically, immigrant American poets such as Waldrop, Simic, and Dinh challenge the meaning of innovation through their word choices, visible racial markers, or audible accent. Do poets still want to surprise? What does making it new mean to immigrant poets? How do the industrial, technological, and informational revolutions influence the citizen's ethical responsibility and the poet's aesthetic power?

I'm of course going to talk about the figure of the immigrant as kitsch, as trash, as bad taste, as "problematic", as fetish, as inauthentic, as deserving to be punched in the face. I will in fact lead a kind of tacky Swedish folk dance that will culminate in "the kissing of the immigrant" (played by me, of course, poorly, with exagerated hand gestures and grimaces, and with too much make-up, which will undoubtedly smear from all the saliva). It will hurt badly on the elbows. I will discuss my heritage, unfortunately not a literary lineage a la Silliman but a lineup of spazzy, pale bodies. I will use breathalyzers and tweezers. But as the description suggests, I will be responsible about it all. My paper is called "The Kissing Disease." It's about the glory of the suburbs. Like I said it's about the fake bodies that pile up in poetry.