AustLit logo

AustLit

Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 'Some Place on This Earth' : Intimacy, Yearning, and the Strange Poetry of Witnessing
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'This paper argues that the work of writers is to witness. This requires a willingness to take up a state of mind somewhere between intimacy and yearning—a state conducive to producing ‘strange poetry’. Most importantly, it means resisting an expressed ethical stance in the face of extreme events. Primo Levi’s If this is a man (1947) and Denise Levertov’s final book of poetry, The great unknowing (1999) are taken as examples of writers doing the work of witnessing extreme events while (purposefully) falling short of taking an ethical stance.' (Publication abstract)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Last amended 18 Sep 2014 13:52:37
http://axonjournal.com.au/issue-1/%E2%80%98some-place-earth%E2%80%99-intimacy-yearning-and-strange-poetry-witnessing 'Some Place on This Earth' : Intimacy, Yearning, and the Strange Poetry of Witnessingsmall AustLit logo Axon : Creative Explorations
X