RANKINE, FORCHE, AND CELAN CREDIBLE WITNESS AND THE LIMITS OF COMMUNICATION What neutralizes/kills Forches witness?

? What is the failure of witness why is Forches witness ineffectual? (BIOGRAPHY)

What Rankine witnesses -- The TV reproductionreportingof Tragedy and

Trauma.

What Forche witnesses The actual tragedy or Trauma (But can we take her
seriously?)

What Celan witnesses Celans witness to closer to Rankines because it is of the culture. That is, Celan himself is implicated in the tragedy/trauma that Forche
would have witnessed.

What makes Rankine a more credible witness than Forche?

There is little room to dispute the events Rankine witnessesmurder, 9/11, etcand when where they happened. The dialogue among poem/explanatory note/still image ground the witness into a paused moment, the establishment of a specific historical personhood is grounded in both the journalistic reportage (explanatory note) and the lyric expressivity (poetic text). In the realm of witness, the Text serves the Image. This is a stronger address of the social space Forche

herself propounds to be the poetry of witness.

Rankines CONSPICUOUS LACK OF SIMILE preserves the texts materiality. The poetic voice is our only source of witness here. Thus, the political-personal dyad that synthesizes into the Social is heavy on the Personal, that lyric expressivity, more than the political. That is, the political is addressed through the Personal lyric. The Personal distills the political via the lyric register, the excessive emotion, to characterize the historical reality. But as Weinberger points out, by doing so Forche excludes those who might benefit from a more political witnessingthe people of El Salvador. Weinberger correctly points out that the aestheticization of Forches witness alchemizes El Salvadors suffering as Forches suffering. Why is this a problem? Forche is not El Salvadoran. She is American. She was an aid worker for Amnesty International. The first obvious question is Who runs Amnesty International and what are their politics? If Poetry of Witness is concerned with the Social, the question of class is a conspicuous Elephant a poets class relative to the witnessed cannot be discounted when considering the legitimation of a witness. THE IMPLICATION OF BIOGRAPHY.

What makes Forche a fallible witness?

The Colonel primarily serves emotionality over the event. Firstly, the text has no image to caption within it the text is fabricating the image for the reader (cf. simile of dried peach halves, Sillimans dematerialization). What you have heard is true ISNT THIS STILL JUST FUCKING HERESY.

WHAT THE FUCK DOES CELAN HAVE TO DO WITH ALL OF THIS Firstly, both Rankine and Forche cite Celan as a prescription. Though Forche

implicates Celans biography into the reception of the work which, ironically, serves to discount Forches witness. For Celan and Rankine (book largely set in New York City post-9/11; Deathfugue, perhaps, at a labor camp) live in the attacked culture, the traumatized culture. Forche was, in a way, visiting the attacked culture. Its important to note that reading Deathfugue in translation highlights the traces of tragedy. (Final stanzas incorporate more and more German, earlier stanzas contrast the communal We speaker against the He antagonist, who commands the We to dig and sing, that is, on His terms and language). The tragedy/trauma is incorporated as a reality, metaphorized as a death of the SpeakerThe poem, in translation, only strengthens the materiality of language and its oppressive possibilities. Forches simile of dried peach halves presents an optical realism that ignores the referent, replaces the signified with the peaches, glances at the ears. Sure, the message of the pile of ears is so unbelievable it cannot be adequately represented in Forches poetrybut it can be represented elsewhere, in the journalistic realm, which Rankine uses as Notes. Rankines book is a true Social Witness, it makes the Personal and Political interdependent. Its important to note here that the choice to have the notes in the back of the book rather than at the bottom of each page retains the aesthetic quality of the poetry without sacrificing the concrete, journalistic reality. Rather, the concrete reality is, in a sense, behind the aestheticized. Rankine doesnt want the reader to forget that, and that one needs to be totally conscious of both when witnessing. Not just the poetic speakers excessive emotion, her determination to preserve the emotions of the witness. SO FORCHES POEMS USE THE LYRIC MODE TO DETERMINE THE POLITICAL, WHEREAS RANKINE MAKES THEM INDEPENDENT. SPACE BELOW RESERVED FOR TALKING TO YOURSELF RE: A SUCCINT THESIS. I want to work towards an answer of what makes a credible poetic witness?, by looking at two American poetsRankine and Forcheand examining Rankines legitimacy and Forches fallibility. Both cite Celan as an ideal for Witness. First I want to explore what about Celan, in both Rankines and Forches words, make Celan the ideal Witness, most clearly demonstrated in Deathfugue in translation (progressive incorporation of German, We vs. He) Then, I want to look at how

Rankine employs her vision of Celan in her own work, and how Forche does this (THAT SHE INTRODUCES CELAN MAINLY THROUGH BIOGRAPHY AND NOT CONCRETE POETICS POINTS TO A PROCLIVITY FOR THE LYRIC EXPRESSIVE QUALITY). To do this, I am gong to look at formal elements of all three poets work, specifically the lack of simile in Rankine and Celan (who use metaphor and personification), how biography and history are implicated in their poems context and its import to credible witness (specific historical personhood), and how interdependent the Personal and Political are in the three poets works as synthesis of what Forche calls the Social. (It might be good to perceive the Political as more of the shared Historical, or the Public). THE WITNESSING MUST BE INTERDEPENDENT WITH THE OUTSIDE HISTORICAL WITH THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. WHAT ULTIMATELY DESTROYS FORCHES CREDIBILITY IS HER BIOGRAPHY. WE KNOW CELAN WAS IN THE HOLOCAUST. RANKINE, A NEW YORKER DURING 9/11. FORCHE? AID WORKER FOR AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL VISITING EL SALVADOR.