Publications

The Detached Self

Abstract: Daniel C. Dennett has argued that the self is a “theorists’ fiction,” a nar- rative self that is spun from the brain and functions like a center of gravity; an abstraction that is “supremely useful,” even if an ontological fiction. Various theo- rists, including Priscilla Brandon, Richard Menary, and Lynne Rudder Baker have retorted that embodiment and a first-person ownership—a “mineness” in Bran- don’s terms—are both necessary for and prior to such a narrative self. The article proposes that the self that is evident in autobiographical art problematizes both of these accounts, illuminating the possibility for self-detachment: the point at which the self loses its center of gravity, its embodiment and its “mineness,” yet remains. Through a consideration of the autobiographical poetry of Charles Bukowski, the article argues that autobiographical art is able not only to construct biography, but to construct identity as well.

Why Reading Sharon Olds
Makes You a Better Person

Cordite Poetry Review
http://cordite.org.au/scholarly/olds-makes-you-a-better-person/

Abstract: In the past fifty years, universality as applied to the lyric ‘I’ has been almost universally condemned. Critics of confessional poetry often dismiss the lyric subject as being self-absorbed, while (post)postmodern critics dimiss universal subjects as (at best) impossible and (at worst) deeply unethical. Yet there is a sense in which we might revive one notion of universals, and it comes in the form of Sharon Olds’ poetry. This is a poetry that exploits and inverts systems of appraisal and valence that are hardwired into our biological makeup. Using the Pulitzer Prize-winning Stag’s Leap (2012) as a case study, I argue that emotion in Olds’ poetry functions as dialectical meta-emotion, which creates a short-circuiting of aesthetic appraisal and cognitive affect. In so doing, the poetry promotes an ability for readers to experience dialectical meta-emotion in the real world, making us more empathetic, and in a small way, better people. 

Flowprints: A revised method for visualising flow in rap

Journal of New Music Research, Volume 48
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09298215.2018.1516784

Abstract: With scholarship on the musical dimensions of rap still in its infancy, there are still analytical tools that need to be developed and refined. We have a lot of data: the timing and articulation of hundreds of songs has been transcribed, thanks to a few very dedicated scholars. This data, however, exists in lengthy, largely neglected spreadsheets. By tracking recent developments in flow visualisation and utilising insights from each in a new approach, the paper contributes a working system for visualising flow aimed at nuance, automation, integration with existing corpuses, and accessibility for a lay audience.

When Poetry and
Phenomenology Collide

Journal of Aesthetics and Phenomenology, Volume 5
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/20539320.2018.1460113

Abstract: In recent years several scholars have wrestled with the term “poetic thought,” suggesting in various ways there is something distinctive about the nature of meaning as it occurs/unfolds through poetry. In this paper I suggest, in part following the lead of Simon Jarvis, that one of the most fruitful lines of inquiry for exploring this idea lies in a consideration of poetic works through the lens of Heidegger’s early phenomenology. Specifically, I argue that one of the keys to understanding poetic thought lies in a flaw within Heidegger’s ontological divisions between substances, equipment and Dasein, as presented in Being and Time (1927). Through an analysis of three poems by Frank O'Hara, I argue poetry that examines and represents the physical world presents a problem for Heidegger when he suggests equipment in the world must necessarily “withdraw” in order for us to engage with it authentically. To address this, the term environment-at-hand is introduced to describe the relationship between artists and the surrounding environments used for their work. Poetic thought is here conceived as the point where poetry and phenomenology collide; where poetry reflects and enacts the fact that humans are inherently engaged meaning-makers. In this way poetry does not only show us new ways of looking at the world, which it surely does, but it can help us understand the nature of being itself.

Meanjin Quarterly, Winter 2020
https://meanjin.com.au/poetry/darling/

the brown country [poem]