Kathy Acker: Punk Writer

Kathy Acker is a unique feminist writer who combines the philosophy and poetics of the European avant-garde with the vernacular and ethos of her punk subculture to voice an idiosyncratic feminist radical politics in literary form. Her body of work is the most developed body of contemporary feminist postmodernist work and of the punk aesthetic in a literary form. This project will provide a detailed and comprehensive analysis of how Acker melds the philosophy and poetics of the European avant-garde with the vernacular and ethos of her punk subculture to voice an idiosyncratic feminist radical politics in literary form. It will be an important text at both undergraduate and graduate levels in gender and womens studies, postmodern studies, and twentieth-century American literature.

Format: Hardback
Length: 196 pages
Publication date: 16 October 2020
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This project is a groundbreaking feminist exploration of the enigmatic and influential artistic oeuvre of Kathy Acker, situated at the dynamic intersection of punk, postmodernism, and feminism. Acker's unique art and politics, which emerged during the tumultuous late twentieth century, offer a critical and exemplary critique of late capitalism. Her extensive body of work, spanning nine novels, novellas, essays, reviews, poetry, and film scripts, published from the 1970s to the mid-1990s, stands as a remarkable testament to contemporary feminist postmodernism and the punk aesthetic in literary form.

Over two decades after her passing, Kathy Acker: Punk Writer delves into the intricate process by which Acker seamlessly blends the philosophy and poetics of the European avant-garde with the vernacular and ethos of her punk subculture. This fusion results in the expression of an idiosyncratic feminist radical politics in literary form, known as punk feminism. Acker's oeuvre employs a distinctive aesthetics of shock, transgression, parody, Debordian détournement, caricature, and montage, reimagining the fin-de-siècle United States as a schlock horror film for her punk girl protagonist. This approach provides a deeper understanding of Acker as a writer who occupies an explosive and creative nexus of contemporary women's writing, punk culture, and punk feminisms' reimagining of late capitalism.

This seminal work will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars at both undergraduate and graduate levels in gender and women's studies, postmodern studies, and twentieth-century American literature. It offers a comprehensive analysis of Acker's artistic contributions and their profound impact on feminist discourse and cultural critique. By examining the intersection of punk, postmodernism, and feminism, this project sheds light on the ongoing struggle for gender equality and social justice in the late twentieth century.

Weight: 462g
Dimension: 161 x 241 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781138296282