exercises
- Write a series of postmodern lyrics which engage with each of
the following:
a) the split self
b) the subversion of voice
c) political dissidence
d) contemporaneous imagery or a taboo subject.
Alternatively:
e) write one postmodern lyric which engages with more than
one of the above. - Create a series of linguistically experimental poems which
engage with each of the following:
a) the extension of metaphor
b) homonyms and other games and systems
c) syntax and grammar
d) discontinuity
e) lexical experimentation
f) the poem as visual object
g) prose poetry and ‘the new sentence’.
Alternatively:
h) write one poem which experiments with more than one of
the above.
THE POSTMODERN LYRIC
The split self
Writing a postmodern lyric does not mean giving up everything we know
about the history of the lyric, but it does mean making it contemporary.
Creating a contemporary lyric, therefore, almost inevitably means engag-
ing with postmodern ideas of subjectivity. Whereas the traditional lyric
was based on the concept of direct personal expression, postmodern
theory and practice have alerted us to the problem that the self can never
directly express itself, because self-expression is always mediated by
language. That is, once we start to use words, language inevitably takes on
a life of its own which is not identical with the feelings we are expressing,
and there will always be a tension between the language and those feelings.
Second, postmodern theory has alerted us to the notion that subjectivity
is decentred, fragmented and multiple: it deconstructs the idea of a
Postmodern poetry, avant-garde poetics 157