The Act of Erasure

The Act of Erasure

“Does not everything depend on our interpretation of the silence around us?”

Lawrence Durrell

Erasure Poetry

“Every something is an echo of nothing.” John Cage

 The meaning of a poem flows from the author’s choice of form, words, and imagery. The poetry traditionally read and studied in the Western World has been written by straight, white, male European poets, which reflects a rather narrow scope of meaning and experience. The rise of modern and postmodern poetry with new forms, words, imagery and meaning has made the genre of poetry more inclusive and given the marginalized powerful literary vehicles to express themselves.

One new subgenre of poetry that has emerged is the erasure poem. An erasure poem uses a preexisting text as the word bank to form a poem by erasing or adding words from the original text. Although it could be argued that all poetry is a form of erasure, since the poet chooses which words to speak and which are silenced, erasure poetry brings this process emphatically to the surface (Macdonald).

Every poem “inevitably ends up as artifact” (Macdonald). Poems are shaped and interpreted based upon the conventions of a certain time period. For example, Rudyard Kipling wrote “White Man’s Burden” to honor Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee and to celebrate the strength and reach of the British Empire. Applying a modern analysis to this poem, however, reveals its harsh, imperialist sentiments and paternalistic vision of Western nations.

The poet and artist who pioneered the erasure subgenre of poetry is Tom Phillips in his book “A Humument.” Phillips’ inspiration for erasure began in 1966 when he purchased a novel, A Human Document by W.H. Mallock, for three pence. Using this novel as a starting point, Phillips created his first and most enduring erasure book, a project that spanned four decades (tomphillips.co.uk).

As a postmodernist form of poetry, erasure naturally challenges genre conventions. Since erasure poetry is by definition generated beginning with another text, some of the words remain “to some extent, beyond reproof, sacred and inviolable” (Macdonald). The generally accepted convention suggested by Robert Lee Brewer states that if less than fifty percent of the text is removed, then the poem veers more into the realm of plagiarism and does not represent a new literary work. An erasure poet retains enough of the original text to suggest an opaque meaning, but must then must redress or reform the text so that a new voice and an often contrary meaning emerges (Macdonald). Moreover, erasure poems emphasize the visual on the page not just the text’s original meaning. For example, the white space on the page represents that which remains unsaid or could not be voiced historically and can be as important as the words that remain (Muller-Zettelmann and Rubik).

Erasure symbolizes the historical silencing of some voices and the privileges granted to others. This reality and fear of being silenced has larger historical implications and taps into our fear of the “threatened erasure of us all” (Muller-Zettelmann and Rubik). Therefore, it is perhaps not surprising that erasure poems have emerged as a powerful form of activist poetry.

Since the emergence of erasure poetry, different poets have transformed the root text to create their poem using different approaches. Phillips wrote his early erasure by “focus[ing]…on the covering up or masking of Mallock’s original work, a process which, by its very nature, allows for a considerable range of creative variation” (Macdonald). For example, on this page  from the book, Phillips covers the original text with a deep blue color and leaves only certain words to form an innovative poetic form and then outlines the remaining words to create a cascading effect of words across the page.                               

Unlike other erasure poets who actively engage with the text, Phillips approaches “the page as both palette and canvas, he draws from this verbose Victorian novel a sparse and intricate poem, seemingly carved from the very visions he himself has superimposed” (Macdonald). Thus, Phillips creates a unique new poetic form and poem from the words and even pages of a traditional novel, transforming its meaning for his purposes and finding his voice to give a contrary meaning to the original.

Another word artist, Mary Reufle, takes this approach even further by completely ignoring the text on the source page. (Reufle). Reufle believes that erasure poetry is a form of writing in which the author strings together words on a specific page by removing some words and linking the remaining together without reading the story on the page before beginning the erasure (Reufle).

Activist erasure poets often write poems that dialogue posthumously with writers to highlight inequities or inconsistencies of the past or dialogue about current social issues. These erasure poets typically take the opposite approach of poets such as Phillips and Reufle who generally ignored the actual meaning of the original text. Kabe Wilson, for example, rearranged Virginia Woolf’s famous novel “A Room of One’s Own” into a new work of literature entitled “Of One Woman or So.” In this rearranged and re-imagined novel, Wilson draws attention to “ historical changes between 1929 and the present day” (Flood).

Wilson reveals the tensions of the past and “cultural changes in race, sex, class, and the role and power of literature” (Flood) that has taken place since Woolf wrote.  At the time it was written, “A Room of One’s Own” was cutting edge as a novel written by a woman; however, Wilson pushes this message further with discussions of privilege, class, and race. Wilson takes the opportunity to dialogue with Woolf about the power of literature and the importance of the voice of the author. This approach to erasure poetry empowers voices of those who have been silenced throughout the broad history of literature and the medium of poetry.

Although erasure poetry represents a relatively recent subgenre of poetry, it operates and engages within the historical tradition of poetry with its ever-changing forms to express new meanings. In particular, erasure poetry uses the power of erasure to reorient the context of a poem. The power of the poet is the power of erasure—that power to choose what voices are heard and what voices are silenced within each poem.

Erasure of Women

“A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” Gloria Steinem

Although the genre of erasure poetry is a relatively new form of expression, the discussion of erasure, and in particular the silencing of women in literature and society, is not new. The feminist movement emerged out of this discussion and created a space for public dialogue and a forum for women to be heard. Being a woman is to “understand what it means to feel erased…paid attention to in extreme…” (Murphy).

The Bechdel Test is one measure that has been created to highlight the erasure of women in one particular art form–movies. It provides an analytic framework to determine if women have been equitably represented in the genre, specifically popular culture movies produced in Hollywood. For a movie to pass the Bechdel Test it must adhere to “three rules: (1) it has to have at least two (named) women in it, (2) who talk to each other, (3) about something other than a man” (bechdeltest.com). Perhaps not surprisingly, the number of movies that pass the Bechdel Test is remarkably small considering how many are produced. This demonstrates that the silencing of woman from substantive matters continues in popular culture.Looking to literature, similar bleak results emerge for the representation of women. Written language like film has the “power to subordinate and exclude women” (Butler 36). For example, much of the traditional analysis surrounding Robert Browning’s poem “My Last Duchess” focuses on the compelling and eloquent character of the Duke yet disregards his control over, abuse of, and then murder of his wife. The arrogant Duke believes that “the world revolves around him simply because he has ‘a nine-hundred-years-old name’” (bbc.co.uk). Although the reader recognizes the Duke’s arrogance, he is still the only one who speaks. The Duchess, sadly and surprisingly, has no voice at all. Erasure poetry ensures that women like the Duchess can and do speak.

Speaking the words and hearing the voice of such silenced women in literature is critical for if we do not hear these women, then we “postpone the concrete and contemporary task of rethinking subversive possibilities for gender and identity within the terms of power itself” (Butler 42). Thus, erasure literature and poetry, in particular, move us forward in this revelation. A particularly problematic genre of literature which silences women and requires an examination so we can rethink gender and identity is: the etiquette guide.

Etiquette Guides for Women

“For a lady to run across the street…is inelegant and dangerous.” Walter R. Houghton

 The etiquette guide is a particularly problematic literature genre which erases women by prescribing an “acceptable” way to act and be.   Etiquette guides assume that women “are effortlessly thin, beautiful, silent, fuckable, baby-making wives” (Murphy). One guide offers the following advice: “a lady ought to adopt a modest and measured gait; to… hurry injures the grace which ought to characterize her” (Thornwell). Although it is easy to dismiss these guides as antiquated, many versions still persist today. Ironically, women often write these guides, calling them a “women” or “feminist” guide which, ironically, perpetuates the erasure of women by women. Unfortunately this new form of etiquette guide does not lead to female empowerment but continues to perpetuate the erasure of women through their stringent conduct rules.

It is important to remember that “[Feminism] is not about framing misogyny as empowerment because it makes us feel better. It is a movement” (Murphy). Unfortunately, there persists an “unspoken rule all young female journalists and writers [are] to follow: keep it light, keep it sexy, don’t dare to move beyond the Twitter mantras that passed for “feminism” these days” (Murphy).

These guides continue to focus on the socially acceptable rules that young women must follow. Often these suggestions for conduct are overtly sexist and usually heteronormative in the advice. As one feminist explains, “little girls should be seen and not heard applies no less frequently to grown women today, despite our claims that we’ve come such a long way” (Murphy). Ironically, these women giving advice to women continue to perpetuate feminine stereotypes in society. For example, a Google search pulled up covers of most of these guides with stereotypically pink covers and overtly feminine fonts.

 These guides silence many, especially marginalized women, defining what it means to be female, to act appropriately and to live productively in society. These guides thus limit women by imposing stringent rules such as: “in order to have its full effect, beauty must be natural, and connected with perfect health” (Thornwell). These women’s guides, despite their claims, provide no progress towards women’s rights and liberty.

As Judith Butler said: “if there is no recourse of a ‘person,’ a ‘sex,’ or a ‘sexuality’ that escapes the matrix of power and discursive relations that effectively produce and regulate the intelligibility of those concepts for us, what constitutes the possibility of effective inversion, subversion, or displacement within the terms of a constructed identity?” (44). These books elevate the perspective of straight, white women with little regard for those who fall outside of this narrow category. This at its root is erasure and “new erasure is the same as the old, but this time they’re calling it ‘feminism,’ a kind of ‘feminism’ that is not only detached from the global feminist movement, but that actively works against it” (Murphy).

Erasure Poetry in “The Her Campus Guide to College Life”

“Collegiette is a term we like to use for a college woman who is on top of her game—strategically career minded, distinctly fashionable, socially connected, academically driven, and smartly health-conscious.” Stephanie Lewis

 In addition to identifying and analyzing the problem of erasure of women in literature of the past and the current women’s guides, my project uses to the genre of erasure poetry to insert a feminist perspective into a text that acts silences women even while trying to provide a voice to women. Since erasure poetry allows the author to engage in a dialogue with the words on the page, I choose the pages of “The Her Campus Guide to College Life,” one of the modern women’s contemporary etiquette guides. Although the guide has some positive attributes–mentioning contemporary problems such as campus safety, the rise of eating disorders in college, and the importance of healthy relationships—it has some major faults.

For example, the visual appearance of the book suggests erasure from the cover alone. The words “Her Campus” are topped with a pink crown on one end and a pink graduation cap on the other. In fact, the entire cover is pink, black, and white. The back cover begins “from dating to internships—everything you need to know about college” as if getting a man and a job are the only important parts of becoming a woman. The important subjects mentioned above are clumped together on the back cover as “the unfortunate scary parts that sometimes come with it” which arguably minimizes the experience of many women in college which is not positive or safe.

The collegiate guide focuses on maintaining a bubbly optimism about college but fails to engage with many serious and important issues for women entering college. In the section on sexual assault for example, the book suggests a variety of tips and states “by exercising responsible behaviors, you should be able to go out and drink with your friend or go on a date without living in fear of sexual assault” (40).

First, no woman should live in fear of sexual assault. Second, the reality is that one in four college women will be assaulted during their time on campus. Third, it is never their fault even if they have exercised irresponsible behaviors. This advice firmly places the onus for preventing sexual assault on the shoulders of a woman who is not culpable for an assault. Thus, the guide fails to remind women that sexual assault is never their fault and the suggestions perpetuate victim blaming. This erases and invalidates the feelings and experiences of women in college who are survivors of sexual assault.

In the chapter on dining, exercising, and eating disorders in college, the sections provide advice on “how to eat healthy in the dining hall,” “healthy foods to keep in your dorm room,” “eating healthy on the go.” While being healthy is good, the chapter avoids discussing body type and/or the pressure to stay thin in college. Issues surrounding disordered eating habits are made extreme through the discussion of severe eating disorders with no nuance. The back cover entices the reader to open the book by saying, “beat the freshman fifteen without having to give up dessert.” The lack of an honest discussion surrounding eating disorders and body image in college erases the perspectives of many women who struggle deeply with these issues.

Erasure poetry in its activist form can provide, in this instance, women with a voice to rise above the prescribed behaviors and imposed identity of literature of the past and present. Erasure poetry provides a literature form to provide anew voice so that women might speak and be heard, especially the marginalized. This book contains erasure poetry scattered throughout it, helping me find my voice and hopefully speaking for those who have been silenced.

This book has been a private form of erasure exploration between a single reader and this specific text. The poems written are not like those of Reufle and Phillips, which work with traditional poems and literature and create new meaning without reference to the original, but more like the work of Abe who directly dialogues with the text. I have intentionally used a variety of symbolic colors to enhance the message of the poem. At times I let the remaining text on the page peek out and at other times I completely blocked it out.

From the part of the book describing tips for women in college about sexual assault, I have chosen to highlight the problematic use of diction in the section. I titled the poem “Victim Blame” and have used a form of erasure that looks like redacted text from confidential documents (41).

This style represents the harsh comments that can be made to survivors of sexual assault. In a light yellow I have written a partner poem to the erasure, which states, “it is not your fault ever.” The yellow represents hope and comfort in the midst of the harsh black lines.

I have another short erasure poem entitled “Consent” in the section of the book on sex, which simply reads “no no no sex” (183). 

The discussion on the page is specifically about “friends with benefits” in which I believe the mention of consent in this context is especially important. The text is blotted out in purple and the words and outlined in red because these are the colors for sexual assault awareness.

The sections from the “Her Campus College Guide” on eating and exercise contain many problematic discussions about how to and how to not eat in college. I have subverted the negativity surrounding eating with an erasure poem about finding a balance in diet and food while in college (66). The poem titled, “How To Eat” intentionally removes all food and diet related words such as calories and fat under the light blue markers but does not fully erase them as a subtle reminder of the negativity often underlying discussions of food.This re-imagined etiquette guide does engage in short conversations related to mental health but lacks an amount of depth and honesty about what many of these conditions feel like. I chose to focus on the short section surrounding anxiety (113). The page is erased with a series of chaotic black squiggles, which represent a heightened state of mental chaos and panic. I blocked off the words in thick black ink and sometimes this bleeds into the word to emphasize the pervading effect of anxiety on the mind and body. The poem is a choppy set of words and emotions and culminates in the word “help” which I have colored in red.

The goal of this poem is to subvert the neat and tidy image of mental heath between the pink and white pages to reveal the internal state of being that accompanies anxiety.

These choices reflect the different forms of erasure that occur in college for women. The  poems in this post do not represent the entirety of my creative work on this project and I encourage you to look for the guide outside of Dr. Churchill’s office to peruse the embedded erasures at your own leisure. Hopefully, the poems that I added will work to subvert the antifeminist messages found between the pink and white pages. Furthermore, hopefully they will engage with the reader in a more honest dialogue about the real, gritty issues that effect many women in college today.

Works Cited

“Bechdel Test Movie List.” Bechdel Test. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Apr. 2016. http://bechdeltest.com>.

Brewer, Robert Lee. “Erasure and Blackout Poems: Poetic Forms | What Are They?” WritersDigest.com. Writer’s Digest, 20 Nov. 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. <http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/erasure-and-blackout-poems-poetic-forms>.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 1990. Print.

Cooney, Brian C. “Nothing Is Left Out.” Journal of Modern Literature 37.3 (2014): 16-33. Project MUSE. Web. 07 Apr. 2016. <http://muse.jhu.edu/article/556563/pdf>.

Flood, Alison. “Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own Remixed to Form New Story.” The Guardian. N.p., 26 Feb. 2014. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/sep/26/virginia-woolf-a-room-of-ones-own-kabe-wilson-of-one-woman-or-so>.

“Good Manners for Young Ladies, 1859.” Good Manners for Young Ladies, 1859. Eyewitness to History, n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/ladiesetiquette1859.htm>.

Jennings, David. “Tom Phillips – Biography.” Tom Phillips – Biography. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2016. <http://www.tomphillips.co.uk/about>.

Kelner, Nicole. “A Young Woman’s Etiquette Guide to Coding.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 5 Oct. 2015. Web. 23 Apr. 2016. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicole-kelner/a-young-womans-etiquette-guide-to-coding_b_8246626.html>.

Lewis, Stephanie Kaplan., Windsor Hanger. Western, and Annie Chandler. Wang. The Her Campus Guide to College Life: How to Manage Relationships, Stay Safe and Healthy, Handle Stress, and Have the Best Years of Your Life! N.p.: n.p., n.d. Print.

Macdonald, Travis. “A Brief History of Erasure Poetics.” Jacket 38. N.p., 2009. Web. 09 Apr. 2016. <http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/erasure-and-blackout-poems-poetic-forms>.

Müller-Zettelmann, Eva, and Margarete Rubik. Theory into Poetry: New Approaches to the Lyric. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2005. Print.

Murphy, Meghan. “Erasure.” Feministcurrent.com. N.p., 11 Dec. 2015. Web. 18 Apr. 2016. <http://www.feministcurrent.com/2015/12/11/erasure/>.

Reuefle, Mary, and Fernando Pessoa. “On Erasure.” ON ERASURE (n.d.): n. pag. Web.

“Robert Browning: My Last Duchess.” English Literature. BBC, 2014. Web. 23 Apr. 2016. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english_literature/poetrycharactervoice/mylastduchessrev4.shtml>.

Sasaki, Frederick. From Snow City. 2011. N.p.

Word Count: 3,158 (added after deadline)

“On my honor I have neither given nor received unauthorized information regarding this work, I have followed and will continue to observe all regulations regarding it, and I am unaware of any violation of the Honor Code by others.” Katherine Grace Gomulkiewicz