Look to Your Left

"The essays in the collection examine, from a variety of perspectives and conceptual standpoints, the ways performative language in contemporary poetry can be politically charged. The poetic text, then, becomes a spectacle, which ultimately renegotiates the power dynamics implicit in the simple act of looking. As the language unfolds before the reader, they are involved and implicated in a revision of what is and what always has been an unequal share of power on the stage of textual authorship and readerly interpretation. Darling grounds these ambitious theoretical discussions (and interventions) in poetry by women, nonbinary writers, and writers of color, with a particular emphasis on texts that have been heretofore undertheorized"--Publisher's website.