Hanks, Chloe Leanne (2026) Articulating Absence: Poetry as a Method of Creative Intervention with Historical Archives & Poetry Collection Such Violent Glamour. Doctoral thesis, York St John University.
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Text (Doctoral thesis)
Articulating Absence Poetry as a Method of Creative Intervention with Historical Archives and Poetry Collection, Such Violent Glamour.pdf - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial. | Preview |
Abstract
The creative portion of this thesis is a collection of poetry titled Such Violent Glamour. I sought to intervene with the archival material that documents a case of poisonings that happened in 17th Century Italy. The material suggests that women used poison disguised as cosmetics products to assume the role of widow in society after the mysterious deaths of their husbands. To deal with absences in the archives, and other complications caused by patriarchal consignation of archives themselves, I adapted my poetic approach to include techniques such as imaginative construction, speculation, personification and experiment with form.
I document this in the critical portion of the thesis where I consider how writers engage with the archive in relation to Jacques Derrida’s Archive Fever (1995) and other texts that respond to it including work from Carolyn Steedman and Arlette Farge amongst others. I present three case studies: Nellie Cole’s Bella (2018), Jay Bernard’s Surge (2019) and Maggie Nelson’s Jane: a Murder (2005). Through close reading of their work, and poetry from Such Violent Glamour, I assess poetic methodology and how one might adapt these approaches to intervene creatively with archives.
In later chapters, I consider my practice as a response to the issue of archival absence. I discuss eco-poetics and the personification of the non-human as a technique with which to create voice. I analyse the Aqua Tofana poisonings of Renaissance Italy in relation to contemporary discourses around violence against women to re-contextualise the issues in the Tofana case with that of those relevant to the contemporary reader.
The collection and critical study seek to advocate for archival navigation as a sensory experience and demonstrate creative intervention as an analytical process through which we better understand the lived experiences of historical figures – a translation of what the archive seeks to articulate.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Subjects: | P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1010 Poetry |
| School/Department: | School of Humanities |
| URI: | https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/15485 |
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