Parasite Poetics: Noise and Queer Hospitality in Erín Moure’s O Cidadán

Abstract:

In this article, I show how poet Erin Moure builds a queer critique of literature, politics, and subjectivity by using noise as a poetic medium. Moure insists that only by deliberately placing one’s literary and political attention upon what is strange, unwanted, and disruptive can we ensure a place for the heterogenous multitudes and their embodiments to come. In this way, she aligns her poetics of noise with queer theory’s turn toward negative affect and unruly becomings. This inquiry drives the structure and linguistic play of her work and is intimately connected to her probe of the limits and possibilities of citizenship and queer hospitality.

Erratum: We regret that an error was introduced to “Parasite Poetics” by editorial staff at Canadian Literature. The name of the poet who wrote Sheep's Vigil By A Fervent Person should read “Eirin Moure” instead of “Erin Mouré” on page 53. Our apologies to the author of the article and to the poet.


This article “Parasite Poetics: Noise and Queer Hospitality in Erín Moure’s O Cidadán” originally appeared in Queer Frontiers. Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 224 (Spring 2015): 47-63.

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