Framing the (Ever-)Fragmentary Self: Memory as the Overarching Catalyst in the Autobiographical Poetries of Thomas Hardy and W. D. Snodgrass
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| Year of publication | 2025 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Inherent as it appears, the aspect of subjectivity may fairly be perceived as dictating the tone and concerns of most lyric poetry. What gets overlooked by virtue of such generalizing, however, are the intricacies characterizing this multifaceted category and the ongoing universal processes which nature transgresses both time and space. This paper focuses on the concept of memory in the poems of Victorian England’s Thomas Hardy and the American poet W. D. Snodgrass, examining how it serves as a catalyst in the process of the poets’ venturing into the nuances of the personal in their respective poetries (and poetics). Placing emphasis on the features of the Snodgrass’ “confessional” legacy as well as Hardy’s autobiographical lyricism striking in his later career, this scrutiny will address these specific, ever-dynamic creative incentives and consequent practice the two poets tap into, seeking to contour a poetic attitude that would establish the overarching cross-cultural and cross-temporal link between both authors. This link could then render them representatives of the ever-lasting literary “tradition” that ultimately brings together the Victoriana and the postmodern. Specifically, the paper zooms in on the selected poems from Hardy’s Moments of Vision (1917) and Snodgrass’ After Experience (1968) and examines a lyrical continuity informed by the process of remembering, with Philip Davis’s idea of memory’s dynamism as well as Sidonie Smith’s assertions of its “fragmentary nature” and the “reconstitution” of the self serving as a backbone for the analysis. It argues that both authors, albeit in different eras and on the different continents, were being guided by the same traceable impulse grounded in the intimate sphere of the private, and that their (continuous) tending to it can be seen as a deliberate and purposeful gesture towards the realm of the personal in poetry. |
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