Poetry as a Pedagogy of Touch

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2017-05-17

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Virginia Tech

Abstract

With evidence ranging from visual representations by scanning tunneling microscopes to the fluid and dynamic language of poetry, my research shows that we are shifting from a culture primarily based on ‘sight’ to one that is involved with ‘touch,’ metaphorically and literally speaking. Recent developments in theory and technology, especially quantum physics and post-structuralism, have redefined representation to encompass the necessary reflex of the representer. To be sure, my research has also found feminist and postcolonial criticisms to echo this theory: both have sought to challenge representations due to the objectivity normally attributed to the representer, the Cartesian logic of which quantum theory has destabilized.

Thus, by reading poetry with a quantum theoretical lens, specifically the works of Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore, Anne Carson, and Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, I show how ‘touch’ plays into our language, consequently affecting how we think through language.

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poetry, poetics, language, quantum theory, Bohr, complementarity, Karen Barad, indeterminacy, feminism, postcolonial, literature, Theresa Cha, Anne Carson, Gertrude Stein, Marianne Moore, scanning tunneling microscope, stm, touch

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