Alex Taitague Humanities and Social Science
The Poetics of Punk
The language of gutter punks and academic poets have something in common: their expressive natures are socially conscious, politically aware, and always new or challenging. My research outlines how exactly both punk music and and poetry use their material to enact change in both the social and political spheres. Punk has remained one of the largest cultural phenomenon of the last 50 years; its effects are still visible today: in the non-conformist attitude, the Do-It-Yourself ethic, the raw emotional and exclamatory lyrics (and you know…mohawks, tattoos, raggedy patches, etc). Poetry, too, has had lasting effects on their environments; it has continually participated in and written about the world in attempts to portray and change it. Punk and poetry share common ends, and it is my intention to read one as I would the other, to determine exactly how these goals are achieved.