Spatial Writing In Rita Dove's Poetry

Rita Dove has won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and became the first African American poet laureate of the United States in 1993.Scholars believe that Dove is the most disciplined and technically accomplished black poet to arrive since Gwendolyn Brooks began her remarkable career in the nineteen forties.As an African American poet in the Post Black Arts Movement,Dove opened a new field of African American poetry,and presented the new orientation of its racial,poetic and the world outlook.It is noteworthy that spatial theme comes all the time through Dove's poetry writing.She makes a clear statement about the spatiality of her works in her laureate lecture that all her books but one bear titles concerned with definable spatial forms.This thesis intends to interpret Rita Dove's spatial writing from the perspective of post-modern spatial theory.It analyzes Dove's perception and thinking on space,and elaborates the aesthetic features and cultural connotation of her poetic space.On this basis,this thesis discusses Dove's profound reflection on and exploration of space.The thesis contains five chapters.The first part of the first chapter introduces Rita Dove' s life experiences and her works.The second part of this chapter puts forward a comprehensive literature review of both international and domestic studies of Dove's poetry.The last part of this chapter is the theoretical framework.This part demonstrates the marginal space theory of Bell Hooks,Thirdspace theory of Edward Soja and the liminal space theory of Homi Bhabha.The second chapter to fourth chapter is the discussion part of this thesis.Chapter 2 uses the marginal space theory of Bell Hooks to interpret the gender space in Dove's poetry.Dove deconstructs the domestically trapped black female image shaped by mainstream discourse.Dove uses the domestic space as the site of resistance for black women to pursue their liberation and freedom;Chapter 3 uses Thirdspace theory of Edward Soja to interpret the cultural space in Dove's poetry.Dove transcends the segregation of mental space and physical space,and thenreconstructs a Thirdspace which contains physical space and mental space,past and future,real and imagery.In this Aleph-like museum space,African American people inherit their own culture and blend it into the word culture;Chapter 4 uses the liminal space of Homi Bhabha to interpret the racial space in Dove's poetry.Dove disassembles the racial boundaries and constructs a transnational,transboundary and transcultural travel space.In this space,black people received their racial identity which contains mobility and hybridity.The last chapter is the comprehensive conclusion of this thesis.Through breaking the binary opposition in traditional space and dissembling the boundaries,Dove constructs the resistant gender space,all-inclusive cultural space and hybrid racial space,and conveys the her spatial concept of building a space which contains differences,diversity and inclusiveness.