At the borders of comprehension: articulating the aberrant body in poetic practice

This research began as an investigation into the poetry found within the linguistic patterns and nonsensical constructions of neurological speech conditions. As I started to unravel the ethical implications of writing about vulnerable subjects, my focus shifted, leading me to examine my own position as a chronically sick person and to recognize the shape my autoimmune illness plays in my life. This project responds to that shift in direction whilst mapping the decisions, processes and approaches taken when writing my unspecified chronic autoimmune illness as poetic practice. My own praxis is intrinsically and inextricably linked to the critical component of this thesis which focuses on poetic works that perform the illness experience by adopting a range of innovative strategies, approaches that reject common literary tropes found in mainstream illness writing. The writers in this study: Denise Leto, Amber DiPietra, David Wolach, Anne Boyer, and Eleni Stecopoulos complicate traditional modes of confessional writing by introducing work to the field that is challenging, multi-layered and multi-interpretational, reflecting the discord that permeates their sense of living with illness. I pay particular attention to the modifying outcomes involved in the act of poetic appropriation: strategies that allow the poet to unsettle hierarchical power structures, produce subjective knowledge and participate in the healing languages of holistic and conventional medical encounters. Across this thesis, I challenge the binary assumptions that posit coherence as the superior mode of articulation in poetic practice, and suggest that alternative embodiments can prove revelatory and productive. Towards conclusion, I stress the importance of fostering an inclusive field that encompasses a range of insightful and embodied expressions, and rethinks questions surrounding access and privilege.