In Darkest Capital: Collected Poems
- Submitting institution
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University of Cambridge
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 1311
- Type
- A - Authored book
- DOI
-
-
- Publisher
- Carcanet
- ISBN
- 9781784104900
- Open access status
- -
- Month of publication
- October
- Year of publication
- 2017
- URL
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-
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- In Darkest Capital contains two previously unpublished sequences: 'Lichens for Marxists' and 'Blueprints and Ziggurats'. As is listed on p. 11, some poems appeared elsewhere before being reworked for inclusion in the finished sequences, including some before 2014 (but none submitted for REF 2014): 'starkness falls', 'pylons and pyramids', 'the bruise that heidegger built', 'embrasures', and 'city of dogs'.
Lichens for Marxists offers glimpses into an ongoing research project into the history and politics of lichens from pre-history to the present. The poems were composed through research into the various ways lichens have been represented. From resistance to Linnean taxonomy and relative invisibility in culture, lichens emerge as emblems, beacons, pollution monitors, postage-stamps of dark ecology and radical reinventions of symbolism. Modern conceptions of lichen symbiosis challenge conceptions of imagery; of botanical humanities; and of the contribution of lichens to global ecology. These poems seek to reinvent forms, modalities and politics through lichenised poesis. The work was shared in readings, magazines and digital contexts, and through social media, often involving digital emblems combining texts and photographs, and also in installations involving bluetooth beacons, Raspberry Pis, photography and music. Along with supporting critical writings, manifestos and exhibitions, the poems have been shared at a range of events. Blueprints and Ziggurats offers historical perspectives and interventions into the history of poetry and architecture, from ancient ziggurat forms to postmodern appropriations. Exploring limits of page form and 'concrete' poetry, the sequence develops poetic architectures and textures through a variety of architectural projects, such as Frank Lloyd Wright's plans for Baghdad and the lost Skylon building, trying to establish new forms, niches and page-based architectures for words as bricks, pylons, grids, and gutters. Architectural theory and philosophy are reconfigured, often satirically. These poems were shared in magazines, readings, art galleries, posters and conferences.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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