YorkeLast week I finished Impertinent Voices, Subversive Strategies in Contemporary Women's Poetry, a book a found mucking around on Amazon.com. This is a very academic book, more about feminist theory than about poetic strategy. And definitely a book describing things as they were during the second wave of feminism. This book was published back in 1991, back when the media was saying young girls were in some kind of backlash against feminism (this was actually a Time Magazine cover story). This was before Riot Grrls and Bust Magazine and Bitch Magazine made third wave feminism relevant. So as a third waver myself, there were aspects of this book I found to be outdated. For instance, back when second wave was in its full throes, feminists felt that men still controlled the meanings of language and culture cues. Third wave feminists feel we have made inroads in this area (thanks to groundwork done by the second wavers, of course) and we feel more in control of our own labels, language and meanings. One example: women today would never think to describe a woman who is assertive or angry or pushing boundaries as "impertinent" because we don't accept that what she is doing is rude or inappropriate by definition. She is telling it like it is. Screw impertinence.

That generation-gap aside, this book did some good things for me. This book opened me up (finally!) to Sylvia Plath. There are about three chapters devoted to her struggles and strategies in this book. If you have trouble connecting with Plath, as I have over the years, this book might help.

The book also has chapters devoted to Adrienne Rich, H.D., and Audrey Lorde.