I went back to Forché’s introduction to see what criteria she used when defining poetry of witness and how Rukeyser’s Book of the Dead fit in.
Forché advocates usage of a 3rd term – “the social” – as a place of resistance and struggle. She goes on to write that a poem is to be judged by its consequences, not our ability to verify its truth. (p. 31)
Christine Tracy recently visited the class, and in an excerpt of hers regarding journalism provided to the class she writes, “While a story can be fair and accurate, real truth evolves over time.”
Last term, in Prof. Halpern’s class, we read an excerpt by The Atlas Group foundation that argued truth was a process.* Although much of the discussion in the article focused on a particular war, much of what was said can apply to Rukeyser’s Book of the Dead as well. The Atlas Group states “The truth of the documents we archive/collect does not depend for us on their factual accuracy. … Facts have to be treated as processes. One of the questions we find ourselves asking is: How do we approach facts not in their crude facticity but through the complicated mediations by which facts acquire their immediacy?”
I think all of these perspectives overlap. Rukeyser presents, through poetry, some of those complicated mediations. The truth conveyed by doctors or by Union Carbide & Co. may not match Philippa Allen’s truth of the event. As reader, we must decide for ourselves. And as Rukeyser utilizes documents she provides both a fact and a complicated truth that we must negotiate for ourselves. For example, by placing stock quotes out of context (e.g., outside of the financial pages of a newspaper) she has extended the document. She has allowed the reader to see through her lens the manual and material costs that fed into the company’s increase in value. The stock value is not just a static piece of information, but a component of a much more complicated story involving migrant workers, racism, the manipulation of nature, the nature of business, illness, government, technology, family, and love.
Later in Forché’s introduction, she writes about using the news media as a model for writing. “Foreigners want to hear nothing but the facts because they do not wish to be disturbed by their complicity in the sufferings of the city.” (p. 36) Again, although the quote is referring to a particular event, it feeds into the idea that one perceives a fact as a static statement – something separate from oneself. Whereas the work of the poet fights against this – there is complicity, including among readers, and when presented in a different frame, the fact is complicated and fluid.
Forché also writes, “The poetry of witness reclaims the social from the political and in so doing defends the individual against illegitimate forms of coercion. It often seeks to register through indirection and intervention the ways in which the linguistic and moral universes have been disrupted by events.” (p. 45) Rukeyser is foremost a poet – she uses poetic devises of rhyme, rhythm, couplets, etc.; she tells of an event in a non-linear fashion. Rukeyser uses her work as poet as intervention, and to prompt the reader to view both poetry and documentation in ways other than the traditional. This juxtaposition amplifies both the poetry and the documents, and forces the reader to pay attention. Philippa Allen defends the individual in Senate hearings; Rukeyser in poetry.
Other criteria listed by Forché that I consider relevant to Rukeyser’s Book of the Dead: “…the normative promises of the state have failed. They have not been afforded the legal or the physical protections that the modern state is supposed to lend its citizens, how have they been able to enjoy the solidarity that the concept of the nation is supposed to provide.” (p.45) Although Forché is writing about the poets themselves included in her anthology, that same criteria can be applied to the individuals Rukeyser is writing about (and therefore are just as vulnerable as the poets presented).
There were subcommittee hearings and trials; certainly the courts failed the workers of those involved. For example, the exorbitant lawyer fees (of those who were marginally paid), and the collusion of doctors with Union Carbide were betrayals to the workers. Assumptions of a safe work environment or of later restitution were not fulfilled.
These are just a few thoughts on the book. Our discussions also focused on shadows [workers who live on the periphery – in the shadows, working in the shadow of silica dust and tunnels, living on the periphery of towns; essentially ephemeral as shadows are.] forms used, implication of using the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and descriptions of nature. More on those topics another time.
*The Archive: Documents of Contemporary Art (Whitechapel Ventures Ltd., 2006)