“To Have a Body / Is a Cruel Joke”: The T.E. Lawrence Poems and Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Shameful Subversion of Cultural Singularity

Carl Watts

Articles

Vol. 48 No. 1 (2023): Special Issue: The Ruptured Commons

“To Have a Body / Is a Cruel Joke”: The T.E. Lawrence Poems and Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Shameful Subversion of Cultural Singularity

Carl Watts^▸^▾

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Submitted: May 16, 2024
Published: 2024-05-21

References

Bartley, Jan. Invocations: The Poetry and Prose of Gwendolyn MacEwen. U of British Columbia P, 1983.
Betts, Gregory. “Before Our Time: Radical English-Canadian Poetries across the Post/Modern Divide.” Canadian Poetry, no. 60, Spring-Summer 2007, pp. 22-45.
Brandabur, A. Clare, and Nasser Al-Hassan Athamneh. “Problems of Genre in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph.” Comparative Literature, vol. 52, no. 4, Autumn 2000, pp. 321-38.
Cheah, Pheng. Spectral Nationality: Passages of Freedom from Kant to Postcolonial Literatures of Liberation. Columbia UP, 2003.
Culler, Jonathan. Theory of the Lyric. Harvard UP, 2015.
Davey, Frank. “Gwendolyn MacEwen: The Secret of Alchemy.” Surviving the Paraphrase: Eleven Essays on Canadian Literature, Turnstone Press, 1983, pp. 47-71.
Deshaye, Joel. “Celebrity and Passing in Gwendolyn MacEwen’s The T.E. Lawrence Poems.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 46, no. 3, 2011, pp. 531-50.
Gerry, Thomas M.F. “‘Green yet Free of Seasons’: Gwendolyn MacEwen and the Mystical Tradition of Canadian Poetry.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 16, no. 2, 1991, pp. 147-61.
Harding-Russell, R.F. Gillian. “Gwendolyn MacEwen’s ‘The Nine Arcana of the Kings’ as Creative Myth and Paradigm.” English Studies in Canada, vol. 14, no. 2, 1988, pp. 204-17.
Lawrence, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph. Jonathan Cape, 1935.
MacEwen, Gwendolyn. “Gwendolyn MacEwen.” Rhymes and Reasons: Nine Canadian Poets Discuss Their Work, edited by John Robert Colombo, Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 1971, pp. 65-72.
—. “The Letter.” Afterworlds, McClelland and Stewart, 1987, p. 104.
—. The T.E. Lawrence Poems. Mosaic Press, 1982.
Marshall, Tom. “Several Takes on Gwendolyn MacEwen.” Quarry, vol. 38, no. 1, 1989, pp. 76-83.
Ochsenwald, William. “Re-Reading T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 52, no. 3, Aug. 2020, pp. 559-63.
Paris, Václav. “T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the Erotics of Literary History: Straddling Epic.” English Literature in Transition, vol. 60, no. 1, 2017, pp. 16-35.
Potvin, Liza. “Gwendolyn MacEwen and Female Spiritual Desire.” Canadian Poetry, no. 28, Spring-Summer 1991, pp. 18-39.
Queyras, Sina. “Lyric Conceptualism, a Manifesto in Progress.” Harriet, 9 Apr. 2012, www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/04/lyric-conceptualism-a-manifesto-in-progress/.
Reed, Brian M. Nobody’s Business: Twenty-First Century Avant-Garde Poetics. Cornell UP, 2013.
Reid, Mary. “‘This Is the World as We Have Made It’: Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Poetics of History.” Canadian Poetry, no. 58, Spring-Summer 2006, pp. 36-54.
Shepherd, Reginald. “Who You Callin’ ‘Post-Avant’?” Harriet, 6 Feb. 2008, www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/who-you-callin-post-avant/.
Sullivan, Rosemary. Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen. HarperCollins, 1995.
Vendler, Helen. Introduction. Soul Says: On Recent Poetry, Belknap P of Harvard UP, 1995, pp. 1-8.
Warwick, Ellen D. “To Seek a Single Symmetry.” Canadian Literature, no. 71, Winter 1976, pp. 21-34.
White, Gillian. Lyric Shame: The “Lyric” Subject of Contemporary American Poetry. Harvard UP, 2014.
Wood, Brent. “From The Rising Fire to Afterworlds: The Visionary Circle in the Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen.” Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews, no. 47, 2000, pp. 40-69.
—. “No-Man’s Land: Mythic Crisis in Gwendolyn MacEwen’s The T.E. Lawrence Poems.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 29, no. 2, 2004, pp. 141-62.

How to Cite

Watts, C. (2024). “To Have a Body / Is a Cruel Joke”: The T.E. Lawrence Poems and Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Shameful Subversion of Cultural Singularity. Studies in Canadian Literature, 48(1), 267–288. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/SCL/article/view/34177

Copyright Notice

[1] Bartley, Jan. Invocations: The Poetry and Prose of Gwendolyn MacEwen. U of British Columbia P, 1983.

[2] Betts, Gregory. “Before Our Time: Radical English-Canadian Poetries across the Post/Modern Divide.” Canadian Poetry, no. 60, Spring-Summer 2007, pp. 22-45.

[3] Brandabur, A. Clare, and Nasser Al-Hassan Athamneh. “Problems of Genre in The Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph.” Comparative Literature, vol. 52, no. 4, Autumn 2000, pp. 321-38.

[4] Cheah, Pheng. Spectral Nationality: Passages of Freedom from Kant to Postcolonial Literatures of Liberation. Columbia UP, 2003.

[5] Culler, Jonathan. Theory of the Lyric. Harvard UP, 2015.

[6] Davey, Frank. “Gwendolyn MacEwen: The Secret of Alchemy.” Surviving the Paraphrase: Eleven Essays on Canadian Literature, Turnstone Press, 1983, pp. 47-71.

[7] Deshaye, Joel. “Celebrity and Passing in Gwendolyn MacEwen’s The T.E. Lawrence Poems.” Journal of Commonwealth Literature, vol. 46, no. 3, 2011, pp. 531-50.

[8] Gerry, Thomas M.F. “‘Green yet Free of Seasons’: Gwendolyn MacEwen and the Mystical Tradition of Canadian Poetry.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 16, no. 2, 1991, pp. 147-61.

[9] Harding-Russell, R.F. Gillian. “Gwendolyn MacEwen’s ‘The Nine Arcana of the Kings’ as Creative Myth and Paradigm.” English Studies in Canada, vol. 14, no. 2, 1988, pp. 204-17.

[10] Lawrence, T.E. Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph. Jonathan Cape, 1935.

[11] MacEwen, Gwendolyn. “Gwendolyn MacEwen.” Rhymes and Reasons: Nine Canadian Poets Discuss Their Work, edited by John Robert Colombo, Holt, Rhinehart, and Winston, 1971, pp. 65-72.

[12] —. “The Letter.” Afterworlds, McClelland and Stewart, 1987, p. 104.

[13] —. The T.E. Lawrence Poems. Mosaic Press, 1982.

[14] Marshall, Tom. “Several Takes on Gwendolyn MacEwen.” Quarry, vol. 38, no. 1, 1989, pp. 76-83.

[15] Ochsenwald, William. “Re-Reading T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom.” International Journal of Middle East Studies, vol. 52, no. 3, Aug. 2020, pp. 559-63.

[16] Paris, Václav. “T.E. Lawrence’s Seven Pillars of Wisdom and the Erotics of Literary History: Straddling Epic.” English Literature in Transition, vol. 60, no. 1, 2017, pp. 16-35.

[17] Potvin, Liza. “Gwendolyn MacEwen and Female Spiritual Desire.” Canadian Poetry, no. 28, Spring-Summer 1991, pp. 18-39.

[18] Queyras, Sina. “Lyric Conceptualism, a Manifesto in Progress.” Harriet, 9 Apr. 2012, www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2012/04/lyric-conceptualism-a-manifesto-in-progress/.

[19] Reed, Brian M. Nobody’s Business: Twenty-First Century Avant-Garde Poetics. Cornell UP, 2013.

[20] Reid, Mary. “‘This Is the World as We Have Made It’: Gwendolyn MacEwen’s Poetics of History.” Canadian Poetry, no. 58, Spring-Summer 2006, pp. 36-54.

[21] Shepherd, Reginald. “Who You Callin’ ‘Post-Avant’?” Harriet, 6 Feb. 2008, www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/who-you-callin-post-avant/.

[22] Sullivan, Rosemary. Shadow Maker: The Life of Gwendolyn MacEwen. HarperCollins, 1995.

[23] Vendler, Helen. Introduction. Soul Says: On Recent Poetry, Belknap P of Harvard UP, 1995, pp. 1-8.

[24] Warwick, Ellen D. “To Seek a Single Symmetry.” Canadian Literature, no. 71, Winter 1976, pp. 21-34.

[25] White, Gillian. Lyric Shame: The “Lyric” Subject of Contemporary American Poetry. Harvard UP, 2014.

[26] Wood, Brent. “From The Rising Fire to Afterworlds: The Visionary Circle in the Poetry of Gwendolyn MacEwen.” Canadian Poetry: Studies, Documents, Reviews, no. 47, 2000, pp. 40-69.

[27] —. “No-Man’s Land: Mythic Crisis in Gwendolyn MacEwen’s The T.E. Lawrence Poems.” Studies in Canadian Literature, vol. 29, no. 2, 2004, pp. 141-62.