Counter-Poetics

â Michel Foucault defined history as â the discourse of powerâ (Society 68), arguing that the function of a â counter-historyâ is â to show that laws deceive, that kings wear masks, that power creates illusions, and the historians tell liesâ (Bainbridge 58). Writing on the relationship of poetry to power, critic Simon Bainbridge argues, citing Byronâ s Don Juan, that in â the face of a model of â Historyâ which can only take â things in the grossâ , Foucault offers a counter history which enables us to â know them in detailâ â (50). By disciplinary analogy, I will argue that the poetry of Indigenous Australian Tony Birch can best be read not only as a counter-history, but as a â counter-poeticsâ . However, I will also ask whether this notion of poetic â counteringâ is inherently oxymoronic, given that poetry is highly performative, writerly and readerly; at its best always a self-questioning and critical art.â (Authorâ s introduction p. 91)

Aesthetics · Analogy · Art · Discipline · Epistemology · Face (sociological concept · Linguistics · Literature · Michel foucault · Performative utterance · Poetics · Poetry · Politics · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Diverse Musicological Studies · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Law · Philosophy · Rhetoric and Communication Studies