Somewhere outside of bliss: George Wallace’s negotiations of space in A simple blues with a few intangibles
Somewhere outside of bliss: George Wallace’s negotiations of space in A simple blues with a few intangibles

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on the politics of space in George Wallace’s A simple blues with a few intangibles (2016). In particular, it examines how Wallace’s book is informed by the current political developments in the United States, and how the poet, in accordance with contemporary scholarship, construes space (especially New York) as a site of both contestation and belonging, of established traditions and fluid identities. Particular attention is given to the issues of immigration and environmental awareness in the light of Donald Trump’s skepticism toward climate change, and his (in)famous call for strict border controls and Muslim travel bans. Ultimately, the paper argues that Wallace’s appealing collection of poetry deserves the widest possible audience and has a lot to offer to contemporary creative writing scholars, as it re-negotiates the conventional significations of political and territorial space in the new media age, and simultaneously teaches us the essential nakedness of poetic composition.

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