Language Eulogizing Space And Inner Freedom "Thirdspace" In Rita Dove’s Poetry

Rita Dove is the first African-American to be appointed to the position of U.S. poetlaureate and the second African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize. She breaks new groundfor poetic creation. As a black female poet, Dove does not speak with a sharp critical voiceagainst the male-and whites-dominated culture and tradition, but crosses national, racial andgender boundaries, paying close attention to humanity in the broadest sense. Dove’s broadhorizons of crossing cultures and boundaries help to shape her characteristic poetic space ofcosmopolitanism. Therefore, the scholars at home and abroad study Rita Dove from differentperspectives, with the spatial approach attracting people’s attention most. This thesis, basedon “Thirdspace” theory developed by Edward W. Soja, carries out a systematical study ofspatial forms and ideological contents of Rita Dove’s poetry, for the purpose of exploring thecharacteristic of “Thirdspace” in Dove’s poetry.“Thirdspace” is a space with extraordinaryopenness and all-inclusiveness, which differs from, contains and transcends physical (First-)and mental (Second-) space. Dove’s poetry from the view of “Thirdspace” presents muchbroader imagined space and complete inner freedom, for in “Thirdspace”, the closed systemof physical space is open, the imagined mental space is completely free, the binary oppositionlike black and white, male and female, center and margin, etc. is entirely broken, anddifferent cultural groups universally cross boundaries, coexist in a cultural reorientation andreteritorialization and negotiate freely with one another, which fully indicates that Dove’spoetry is language eulogizing space and inner freedom.Chapter1is an introduction, which makes an overall picture of the paper. Chapter2setsup the theoretical framework of thesis, where the connotation of Edward W. Soja’s“Thirdspace” theory is briefly introduced, and the characteristics of transcultural space and“Thirdspace” reflected from Dove’s poetry are generally explained. Chapter3analyzesspatial forms of Rita Dove’s poetry in relation to “Thirdspace” from the techniques ofexpression like dimensions of spatiotemporal relations, physical space beyond confinementsand mental space beyond cultural fixations. Chapter4deeply interprets ideological contents of Dove’s poetry in relation to “Thirdspace” in terms of racial space renegotiated, genderspace mediated, transcultural space syncretized and humanity space revisioned, which fullymirrors Dove’s broad horizon as a cosmopolitan poet. Chapter5draws a conclusion thatDove constructs “Thirdspace” in her own way, i.e. she speaks the universal humanity with thevoice of a world citizen, and brings personal, racial and national experiences into the broaderprospect of world culture.