{"title":"“某些该死的身体”:黑人女权主义在露西尔·克利夫顿精神写作中的体现","authors":"M. Magloire","doi":"10.1353/afa.2022.0043","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Despite her fame as a poet, Lucille Clifton’s practice of spirit writing remains little known and understudied. Clifton’s familial practice of automatic writing and spirit communication spanned decades and encompassed everything from past life regressions to conversations with departed spirits as diverse as Langston Hughes, Beethoven, Billie Holiday, and Jesus. This article uses Clifton’s unpublished spirit writing, recorded in the 1970s and ’80s, to shed light on themes of spirit and embodiment in her poetry. I argue that throughout Clifton’s published and archival work, she insists on the primacy and specificity of her Black woman’s body as a site of spiritual encounter, even as she complicates the notion of Black feminist embodiment by presenting the Black woman’s body as one transitory incarnation among many. By contextualizing Clifton’s spirit writing within a longer tradition of Black women’s vernacular mysticism, I outline the moral importance of Black women’s lived experiences on a cosmic timescale that seemingly eclipses race and gender.","PeriodicalId":44779,"journal":{"name":"AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"“Some Damn Body”: Black Feminist Embodiment in the Spirit Writing of Lucille Clifton\",\"authors\":\"M. Magloire\",\"doi\":\"10.1353/afa.2022.0043\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Abstract:Despite her fame as a poet, Lucille Clifton’s practice of spirit writing remains little known and understudied. Clifton’s familial practice of automatic writing and spirit communication spanned decades and encompassed everything from past life regressions to conversations with departed spirits as diverse as Langston Hughes, Beethoven, Billie Holiday, and Jesus. This article uses Clifton’s unpublished spirit writing, recorded in the 1970s and ’80s, to shed light on themes of spirit and embodiment in her poetry. I argue that throughout Clifton’s published and archival work, she insists on the primacy and specificity of her Black woman’s body as a site of spiritual encounter, even as she complicates the notion of Black feminist embodiment by presenting the Black woman’s body as one transitory incarnation among many. By contextualizing Clifton’s spirit writing within a longer tradition of Black women’s vernacular mysticism, I outline the moral importance of Black women’s lived experiences on a cosmic timescale that seemingly eclipses race and gender.\",\"PeriodicalId\":44779,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2022-12-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1353/afa.2022.0043\",\"RegionNum\":3,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"LITERATURE, AMERICAN\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"AFRICAN AMERICAN REVIEW","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/afa.2022.0043","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE, AMERICAN","Score":null,"Total":0}
“Some Damn Body”: Black Feminist Embodiment in the Spirit Writing of Lucille Clifton
Abstract:Despite her fame as a poet, Lucille Clifton’s practice of spirit writing remains little known and understudied. Clifton’s familial practice of automatic writing and spirit communication spanned decades and encompassed everything from past life regressions to conversations with departed spirits as diverse as Langston Hughes, Beethoven, Billie Holiday, and Jesus. This article uses Clifton’s unpublished spirit writing, recorded in the 1970s and ’80s, to shed light on themes of spirit and embodiment in her poetry. I argue that throughout Clifton’s published and archival work, she insists on the primacy and specificity of her Black woman’s body as a site of spiritual encounter, even as she complicates the notion of Black feminist embodiment by presenting the Black woman’s body as one transitory incarnation among many. By contextualizing Clifton’s spirit writing within a longer tradition of Black women’s vernacular mysticism, I outline the moral importance of Black women’s lived experiences on a cosmic timescale that seemingly eclipses race and gender.
期刊介绍:
As the official publication of the Division on Black American Literature and Culture of the Modern Language Association, the quarterly journal African American Review promotes a lively exchange among writers and scholars in the arts, humanities, and social sciences who hold diverse perspectives on African American literature and culture. Between 1967 and 1976, the journal appeared under the title Negro American Literature Forum and for the next fifteen years was titled Black American Literature Forum. In 1992, African American Review changed its name for a third time and expanded its mission to include the study of a broader array of cultural formations.