Book contents
- Robert Lowell in Context
- Robert Lowell In Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Places
- Part II American Politics, American Wars
- Part III Some Literary Models
- Part IV Contemporaries
- Part V Life, Illness, and the Arts
- Part VI Reputation and New Contexts
- Chapter 21 Letters
- Chapter 22 Whiteness
- Chapter 23 Appropriation
- Chapter 24 “Raw” Poets
- Chapter 25 Lowell’s Influence
- Chapter 26 Language and Post-Language Poets
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 23 - Appropriation
from Part VI - Reputation and New Contexts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2024
- Robert Lowell in Context
- Robert Lowell In Context
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part I Places
- Part II American Politics, American Wars
- Part III Some Literary Models
- Part IV Contemporaries
- Part V Life, Illness, and the Arts
- Part VI Reputation and New Contexts
- Chapter 21 Letters
- Chapter 22 Whiteness
- Chapter 23 Appropriation
- Chapter 24 “Raw” Poets
- Chapter 25 Lowell’s Influence
- Chapter 26 Language and Post-Language Poets
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
The chapter argues that Robert Lowell erred morally, and thereby aesthetically – since art must be held to account – in his literary experiment of appropriating the epistolary voice of Elizabeth Hardwick, the esteemed literary critic, novelist, and co-founder of and regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, into The Dolphin (1973). Hardwick was Lowell’s second wife, then ex-wife at the time Lowell composed his sequence. Saltmarsh argues for a need to see her as a subject, and not an objectified "Lizzie" character. In quoting from many of Hardwick’s essays, letters, and writings, she hopes to restory what we think we know about the literary history of Lowell and Hardwick. Broadly, this chapter offers a reappraisal of both Lowell and Hardwick, and sheds light on the limits of confessional poetry, particularly when a writer is purporting to speak as an intimate other.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Robert Lowell In Context , pp. 249 - 261Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024