Alice Oswald - Memorial: An Excavation of The Iliad.

 Alice Oswald. Memorial: An Excavation of The Iliad. (United Kingdom: Faber and Faber, 2011) 

Alice Oswald’s poem, based on the Iliad, is published as an excavation. This interpretation removes the narrative. What remains is an atmosphere, which Oswald describes as invocative, as if speaking to the dead. What do we mean by ‘excavation’? Is that supposed to suggest an appropriation, a ransacking, or an archaeological dig that reveals new evidence that reshapes our thinking about something we thought we knew? 

The poem relates descriptions of the deaths of fighters in the Iliad, intercut with repeated long similes from the epic. It opens with the list of names of the dead, in a font that suggests a stone war memorial, so the typography suggests the reception. The effect is contemplative and mesmerising. Initially, I thought it worked as a poem and was wondering how it could work as a play. But now I believe it would work better as a play than a poem. It has been performed from Adelaide to London. Images from the production suggest soldiers represented in a range of wars, so the poem as a play becomes a memorial for all soldiers killed in war. 

Oswald frequently performs the text aloud from memory! There is potential for other texts to receive this treatment - a kind of extended blackout poetry.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Irmgard Keun - After Midnight

Image
First published in Germany in 1937, this short novel tells the story from the point of view of nineteen year old Sanna about her family and friends as Germany is changing. It shows how the political changes impact social changes. The central theme is romance but it is really about how individuals navigate the new rules as the power of the Nazis grows. It is now published as a Penguin Modern Classic, translated by Anthea Bell.  The young women are hanging out in bars more than you might expect for the time period. I like the female references and the humour.  Some extracts: Gerti is washing her swollen eyes. We must go back to our table. My head's full of confused, random thoughts, like a ball of wool I must knit into words. I must knit a stocking of words. It takes so long, and I forget what I was going to say a minute ago, as if I'd dropped a stitch.  ..... Herr Breitwehr believed Frau Silias's story about the fake silver fox fur. So then Frau Breitwehr went off to Godenhe
Read more

Nina MacLaughlin - Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung.

Image
  Nina MacLaughlin. Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung . (USA: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2019).  This rewrite is better than I had expected. Each story is told using a different form, mostly first person, some dialogue, or third person, mostly set in the ancient past but including modern references, so creating the impression of everywhen. More than thirty stories create the cumulative effect of a chorus. Each form is different. My observation is that the women are all lonely.  I collected many impressive lines. The rewritings that impressed me include Arachne (as an example of weaving); the confusion of Callisto as she transforms into a bear and a constellation; the story of Scylla begins as emails exchanged with her friend Galatea, and the creepy stalker guy Polyphemus, then Circe turns her into a monster in the water with a skirt of dogs where Scylla tries to cope by controlling what she can, her own thoughts; Medusa saying she is lonely; the irony of Egera turning into a spring when she wa
Read more

Dorothy B. Hughes - In a Lonely Place

Image
A crime story in the hard-boiled detective / film noir style set in LA and published in 1947. I'm not giving anything away when I tell you the criminal is the narrator and we, as readers, are in his head. Dix Steele, at a loose end in LA, connects with an old war buddy who is now a police detective on the case of finding a serial killer. As a reader I was intrigued by his psychology, and, to be honest I didn't catch on about some clues as early as I should have. I knew he had to be caught (it's morally right) but I had no idea how. Also, he's kind of charming and cool, and we don't see the details of his crimes, so we can accept him as the people around him accept him. And there's the rub! The women around him are suspicious though, so there's some consolation in that.  I quite liked this: 'Lochner was the tall, thin man. His clothes were a little too big for him, as if he'd loss weight worrying.'  I was quite shocked by the casual cruelty of thi
Read more