Pagination
162-162ISBN-13
9780522874747Language
engResearch statement
POETRY, CLIMATE CHANGE AND DEFAMILIARISATION
Research background
Poetry’s power to defamiliarise language and to challenge the automatism of perception was first theorised by the Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky in 1917, notably at a revolutionary moment for the Soviet Union. The critical concept of defamiliarisation, however, has fallen out of favour--along with New Formalism more generally--because of its association with the 'purely' aesthetic. However, might defamiliarisation find new valency in the unfamiliar age of the Anthropocene?
Research Contribution
Contributing to knowledge generated in the Field of Research 190402 Creative Writing, this poem investigates how defamiliarisation, as a poetic technique that extends to both form and content, might find new application in our present climate emergency. Here, in a prose poem, I draw attention to animal lives, defamiliarising human routines by attending to a non-human point of view.
Research Significance
The value of this poem is attested to by its multiple publications, including in the national anthology of prose poetry, but also in The Australian, where my poem alone (from the entire anthology) was republished and analysed in a long review. It was also accompanied by its own specially commissioned artwork. Previously the poem was published in Australia's premier poetry journal Cordite, as well as in my highly acclaimed poetry collection, The End of the World, which was published by Giramondo and positively reviewed around the world, including in The Los Angeles Review of Books. The value of this work and the recognition of my expertise in the area is also evidenced by my invitation to edit/curate a special 2020 issue of Cordite Poetry Journal dedicated to the theme of 'Earth.'Publication classification
X Not reportablePublisher
Melbourne University PressPlace of publication
Melbourne, Vic.Source
Anthology of Australian Prose Poetry
