The essays in the collection examine, from a variety of perspectives and conceptual standpoints, the ways performative language in contemporary poetry can be politically charged.The poetic text, then, becomes a spectacle, which ultimately renegotiates the power dynamics implicitin the simple act of looking.As the language unfolds before the reader, they are involved and implicated in a revision of what is and what always has been an unequal share of power on the stage of textual authorship and readerly interpretation.InLook to Your Left:A Feminist Poetics of Spectacle, Darling grounds these ambitious theoretical discussions (and interventions) in poetry by women, non-binary writers, and writers of color, with a particular emphasis on texts that have been heretofore undertheorized.
