This session will explore poetic self-portraiture
and the shaping of identity within the bounds of the quotidian. John Ashbery’s “Self-Portrait
in a Convex Mirror” is perhaps one of the more notable examples from this era;
as a poet firmly situated within the intermediality of poetic textual images
and art, he addresses “the enchant of self with self” through personal depiction and aesthetic production. But what is revealed to
the reader in these moments of vulnerability and self-appraisal? How can the
poet be both subject and object, while constructing a poetic likeness amongst the
commonplace? This panel seeks poetry of self-encounter, whether banal or
familiar, to interrogate an inward/outward representation of the self within
these constructs.
We wish to invite contributions relating to any
of the following aspects, as well as broader interpretations of the theme which
may illuminate and elucidate in greater detail.
-Intersections of visual art and poetic
portraiture
-Depictions of the domestic and the visual
-Intermediality of poetic textual images
and art
-Interrogations of the actual and the self
-Orality and performance poetry
-Visuality of text and experimentation
-Mimesis and the composition of ordinary
spaces
-Indeterminacy and temporality