The cultural politics of William Carlos William's poetry

Abstract

This thesis offers a political reading of William Carlos Williams's poetry. Grounding its analysis in the work of a range of authors and theorists, as well as his own biography and writings, it approaches Williams's poems as critical texts that in complex ways represent, reinvent, and call into question the societal life and social spaces to which they refer. This approach exemplifies a new framework for understanding Williams's work and literary evolution: one that is as historically attuned as it is aesthetically exploratory. As such, this thesis also assesses Williams's engagement with genre and poetic form, arguing that these last are closely related to his understanding of American democracy, political commentary, and radical commitment.