Judy Grahn's Violent, Feminist Camp

van Rijswijk, HM

Judy Grahn's Violent, Feminist Camp

van Rijswijk, HM

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Publisher:: Rodopi
Publication Type:: Chapter
Citation:: The Body and the Book, 2008, First, pp. 319 - 330
Issue Date:: 2008-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	van Rijswijk, HM https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9180-0078	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Byron, G	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Sneddon, A	en_US
dc.date.issued	2008-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	The Body and the Book, 2008, First, pp. 319 - 330	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	978-90-420-2422-9	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/14413
dc.description.abstract	It is often said that feminists, especially radical lesbian feminists, are not funny. Conservatives have levelled lack of humour at feminists as a political weapon, as a sort of baseline attack: the claims of feminists, they have argued, are a bit of a joke, whereas they themselves are not funny. With Judy Grahn, we see this weapon being wielded figuratively in retaliation: not only is her work funny, it is violently funny and both funny and violent. In my reading of two of her poems, 'The Psychoanalysis of Edward the Dyke' and 'I have come to claim', I argue that Grahn's humour plays on elements of camp and violence as a site of political subversion. At the time of writing both poems, during the 1960s, Grahn was very concerned with working-class, feminist, lesbian politics. These concerns arise thematically in her work of the 1960s, where she deals with sexual violence, homosexuality, racism and class politics. My focus here is not so much on thematics but on the aesthetics of Grahn's poetry. How do camp humour and violent imagery articulate her concerns?	en_US
dc.publisher	Rodopi	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	The Body and the Book	en_US
dc.title	Judy Grahn's Violent, Feminist Camp	en_US
dc.type	Chapter
utslib.location	Amsterdam, The Netherlands	en_US
utslib.for	220306 Feminist Theory	en_US
utslib.for	1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing	en_US
utslib.citation.edition	First	en_US
dc.location.activity	Sydney, Australia
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Law
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - LRC - Law Research Centre
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.consider-herdc	false	en_US
pubs.edition	First	en_US
pubs.place-of-publication	Amsterdam, The Netherlands	en_US

Abstract:

It is often said that feminists, especially radical lesbian feminists, are not funny. Conservatives have levelled lack of humour at feminists as a political weapon, as a sort of baseline attack: the claims of feminists, they have argued, are a bit of a joke, whereas they themselves are not funny. With Judy Grahn, we see this weapon being wielded figuratively in retaliation: not only is her work funny, it is violently funny and both funny and violent. In my reading of two of her poems, 'The Psychoanalysis of Edward the Dyke' and 'I have come to claim', I argue that Grahn's humour plays on elements of camp and violence as a site of political subversion. At the time of writing both poems, during the 1960s, Grahn was very concerned with working-class, feminist, lesbian politics. These concerns arise thematically in her work of the 1960s, where she deals with sexual violence, homosexuality, racism and class politics. My focus here is not so much on thematics but on the aesthetics of Grahn's poetry. How do camp humour and violent imagery articulate her concerns?

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/14413