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A review by kjw
Diving Into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich
2.0
2.5/5: Mixed feelings about this one bc I’m always a fan of any poetry that confronts its political context directly but Rich’s TERF (anti-trans) politics so are hard to escape: her supposedly “radical” poetics often reduce themselves to TERF-y perspectives on solidarity that reproduce anti-trans logic.
BUT what complicates the collection for me is that there are several poems (including the “Diving into the Wreck,” which gives the collection its name) that I read as pretty gender fluid— it’s very possible that I’m just projecting here (lol) but it does rescue(?) the collection somewhat.
Also Rich is an undeniably great image-maker, but her social critique poems (especially those about Vietnam) have a tendency to avoid describing the oppressed as agents of their own resistance and liberation, which I found frustrating
BUT what complicates the collection for me is that there are several poems (including the “Diving into the Wreck,” which gives the collection its name) that I read as pretty gender fluid— it’s very possible that I’m just projecting here (lol) but it does rescue(?) the collection somewhat.
Also Rich is an undeniably great image-maker, but her social critique poems (especially those about Vietnam) have a tendency to avoid describing the oppressed as agents of their own resistance and liberation, which I found frustrating