Language in Harryette Mullen's poetry is like a loop of sound-bytes edited by an imp of the anti-establishment. Threads of African American vernacular meet Spanish idiom, only to emerge as speech from the mouth of a white Gen-Xer. The result is...
[more]Language in Harryette Mullen's poetry is like a loop of sound-bytes edited by an imp of the anti-establishment. Threads of African American vernacular meet Spanish idiom, only to emerge as speech from the mouth of a white Gen-Xer. The result is a constantly shifting notion of linguistic identity.
Mullen sees this multiplicity as a 'small gesture toward a visionary heteroglossia, which seems appropriate to the diaspora of languages and cultures that the black world encompasses. There's always the possibility of the unimagined reader, someone not necessarily aimed at, but one who can read the text as I'd never imagine. I do want to leave space for that possibility.'
Mullen's work makes provisional alliances between the oral and written traditions of African American culture. Where meaning breaks down, rhythm takes over, and voice becomes a vehicle that transports readers across multiple locations. Mullen uses language to challenge not only the dominant social codes of the mainstream, but also the social codes within minority cultures.
Mullen arrived at this heteroglossic strategy only after earlier experiments with univocal poetry. Her first book, 'Tree Tall Woman,' was very much in the tradition of the "authentic voice." Most of the poems speak from a black persona and reflect Mullen's idea of black identity. As Mullen traveled out of her native South, however, she realized that her notions of black speech and identity were predicated on her assumption that 'a black person was someone with Southern roots and someone who ate collard greens and someone who was probably a Protestant.' After rethinking her own identity, she produced two formally innovative volumes, 'Trimmings' and 'S*PeRM**KT' (Spermkit/Supermarket), which explore the work of Gertrude Stein and Mullen's own concerns about race, gender, and culture.
At her readings, Mullen noticed that the composition of her audience was changing; whereas her first book drew a racially mixed audience, 'Trimmings' and "S*PeRM**KT' attracted mostly white listeners. Mullen soon found herself in the uncomfortable position of being the only African American present. She realized that the nature of her writing altered people's perceptions of her: 'People saw 'S*PeRM**KT' as being not a black book but an innovative book. And this idea that you can be black or innovative, you know, is what I was really trying to struggle against.'
Her next volume, 'Muse and Drudge,' synthesized her earlier innovations with a reexamination of diaspora culture. She explored diversity of experience, probing the possibility of constructing a unifying, encompassing vision by rethinking language and culture.
The author of four books of poetry and numerous critical essays, Mullen currently teaches African American literature and Creative Writing at the University of California at Los Angeles.
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