Research Guide to American Literature

1 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present

and fantasies have never been acted-on.” Poems to consider include “Living in

Sin,” “The Knight,” “Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law,” and “The Burning of

Paper Instead of Children.”

4. In “When We Dead Awaken: Writing As Re-Vision” (1971) Rich lays the
   groundwork for a principle of feminist interpretation:

Re-vision—the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entertaining

an old text from a new critical direction—is for women more than a chap-

ter in cultural history: it is an act of survival. Until we can understand the

assumptions in which we are drenched we cannot know ourselves. And this

drive to self-knowledge, for women, is more than a search for identity: it is

part of our refusal of the self-destructiveness of male-dominated society.

Students may wish to look at how Rich practices “re-vision” in her own prose
and poetry or consider how the concept of re-vision might be applied to other
literature of this time. Where else do we see contemporary writers uncovering
“assumptions” about female identity that prevent women from knowing them-
selves? Students could also analyze the importance of this process in challeng-
ing oppressive social roles with the goal of transcending them and developing
new ones.

5. The radical nature of Rich’s ideas about gender and sexuality is not always
   obvious to contemporary readers of her work. Students can get a sense for
   the historical importance of her contributions to feminism by comparing
   reviews of her work appearing before and after Diving into the Wreck. Before
   this collection, reviewers miss, for the most part, themes about women; after
   its publication, they react, both positively and negatively, to Rich’s evolving
   feminism and her focus on gender issues. Students can begin to analyze
   attitudes about Rich’s feminism and trace a historical shift in the reception
   and understanding of her ideas in these reviews. Cooper reprints a sampling
   in “Part Two: Reviews of Rich’s Poetry, 1951–1981” (pp. 209–289) and pro-
   vides a bibliography of other reviews (organized under the titles of the works
   being reviewed, pp. 352–364); some reviews also appear in the Gelpi volume.
   Susan Sheridan’s outline of the critical reception of Rich’s work would also
   be useful.

RESOURCES

Primary Works

Bill Moyers, “Adrienne Rich,” in his The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets (New
York: Doubleday, 1995), pp. 335–353.
Transcript of an interview in which Rich discusses her life, poetry, and creativity.

Matthew Rothschild, “Adrienne Rich: I Happen to Think Poetry Makes a Huge
Difference,” Progressive, 58 ( January 1994): 30–35.
Interview in which Rich discusses the relationship between poetry and politics.