My Way_ Speeches and Poems - Charles Bernstein

A N I N T E R V lEW WIT H HAN N A HMO C K E L - R I EKE 69
ing forms. But that means we can't take our conventions for granted,
else they become markers for distinctions no longer having any
necessity. The writing style of most theoretical prose, like most nontheoretical
poetry, is inert. I am looking for ways to keep the genres
active, alive, aware of themselves. If I write an essay in verse it's not
because I think there's no difference between poetry and prose but
because I think it does make a difference to use the poetic form. And
after all, in the history of Western writing, prose emerges from poetry,
not the other way round; the verse essay calls to me of its historical
precedence over the prose essay.
HMR: "The death of the subject" and "the death of the author" are
concepts that are very common in academic discourse, which has
quickly integrated and annihilated the powerful implications of
these concepts. What do they actually mean for poets writing today,
for their relation to their own texts, their circulation, their relationship
to the book markets, etc.?
CB: In her introduction to The Birth-mark, Susan Howe makes the forceful
point that, just as those who have been silenced in literary history
have begun to speak, the author is said to have died. What has
died, however, is not authors but an idea of the author as Representative
Man. For me, this actually potentiates the poetic possibilities
for individualities, for personal agencies, by removing the scaffolding
and stilts that came with the Representative Verse Kit ($44.95,
batteries not included). My own rather concerted effort to avert
some of the hallmark conventions of verse and exposition, grammar
and prosody; my insistence on doing it my way, even in the face of,
even because of, being ostensibly wrong, can also be understood as
a resurgence of Willfulness, obstinacy, stubbornness, dissidencethemselves
marks of a newly forming indiViduality, not displaced to
narration of subjective "inner" space, but textually enacted in the
"outer" space of the poem.
HMR: In the paradigm of "subjectivity"-even in the double sense of
autonomy and being subjected to-the concept of "inspiration"
always played a crucial role. I'm thinking of Denise Levertov, and of
course all the romantic poets.
CB: I'm more drawn to speak of intuition than inspiration. Intuition is
a crucial term to describe a working practice of poetry (as well as
science, business, much else): it suggests an arena for judgment
based on hunches, guesses, quick assessments. I love the fact of intuition
not being defensible, at least on rational grounds, even if perfectly
reasonable; and also that you can learn to use your intuition,
that is learn when to go with it and how, but it's something you have