A New Historicist Study Of Rita Dove’s Poetry

Rita Dove(1952-)is one of the most brilliant African-American female poets in Contemporary America.For distinctive poetic concept and writing strategies,Dove was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1987 and became the first African American poet in American history who was titled Poet Laureate in 1993.With the passion of a poet and the delicacy of a woman she writes about a wide range of subjects,including philosophy,art,politics,etc.However,the primary concerns for history are threaded into the creation of Dove’s poetry;therefore,she is esteemed as“A historian among poets.”She bears keen historical conscio usness and gives special attention to the social and authentic life of African Americans.Her poetry records some important events and historical figures in the history of blacks,and the personal experience of slaves as a marginalized group,excavating the history forgotten or understated by the official archives.African Americans are one of the creators of American history,and they have left a strong mark on the course of history.Yet their accounts are left mostly blank and even distorted in official records.Dove reconstructs the African American history by combining histories with memories,facts with imaginations,and unburies the histories that are obliterated by official history,making them reappear in the eyes of the public.Guided by the theory of New Historicism,this study aims to explore the historical context of Dove’s poetry by presenting the pluralism and constructiveness of history,so as to discuss how the poet represents and subverts the official history and achieve the historical reconstruction of her text,with a view to demonstrating Dove’s deep historical consciousness and humanistic feelings.This thesis is structured into five chapters.The introductory part begins with a brief glimpse of Rita Dove and her works and points out the significance of studying Rita Dove.Then,after reviewing the researches on the poet at home and abroad,it is found that Dove’s poetry can be studied from New Historicism.Finally,it briefly summarizes the development and main viewpoints of New Historic ism.Chapter two examines the histories represented in Rita Dove’s poetry,this chapter revolves around the events that occurred in the history of African Americans,including the 1920s black migration,the 1950s Montgomery bus boycott,and the enslaved history of blacks,which gives Dove’s poetry a sense of historicity.Dove writes about the historical moments associated with the experiences of African Americans,unearthing histories that have been buried or watered down by traditional official records.This chapter further clarifies that the author and history will influence the text,but at the same time,the text also participates in the shaping of history and society as a part of history.The third chapter discusses how Dove achieves the subversion of official history in her poetry.The histories recorded in the official archives could not truly reflect the reality;therefore,Dove remodels historical figures,rewrites historical events in her poetry,subverting the traditional“ghetto model”of blacks and creating new images of the black female.By subverting them,Dove presents a different picture to us and counters the grand narrative of official American history.C hapter four expounds on how Dove reconstructs the familial relation and prevailing ideology based on the subversion of history.By uncovering the historical reality and subverting the official history,Dove has reshaped the history of African Americans to a large extent,which shows that the literary text is the product of history and,at the same time,reshapes history.Chapter five is the concluding part of the thesis,which briefly reviews the core content of the preceding section.Under the guidance of New Historicism,it concludes that Dove bears a strong sense of historical consciousness,and her representation of historical subjects is comprehensive and multi-layered.Her poetry embraces almost every aspect of the social and historical life of African American.Through historical reconstruction,Dove has formed a distinctive historical concept and a constructive strategy of historical poetics.Her historical poetry is a valuable component of public discourse,which can better help the entire society to examine African American history and society comprehensively and objectively.