LYRIC POETRY AND POSTCOLONIALISM

Abstract

This paper examines postcolonial subjectivity through modernist and postcolonial theories of the lyric. I suggest that an aesthetic consideration of the lyric form and subjectivity might foreground how the postcolonial lyric cherishes the concept of a bounded self while simultaneously reshaping boundaries. Such a consideration might move beyond subjectivity and identity formation by reading lyric poetry’s intervention in modernity as critique rather than self‐expression.

Keywords:

• allegory
• cognitive mapping
• lyric poetry
• modernity
• postcolonial
• subjectivity

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Weihsin Gui

Weihsin Gui is a doctoral candidate in Literatures and Cultures in English at Brown University, USA. His dissertation, “The National Residual: National Consciousness and Global Culture in Postcolonial Anglophone Literatures”, examines how literature as artwork and critical hermeneutic both challenges and cherishes the national imaginary within narratives of globalization.