Otherness and Assimilation: The Poetry of Double-consciousness in the Works of Charles Simic, Marilyn Chin, and Susan Atefat-Peckham

This paper examines assimilation and double-consciousness in the poetry of Charles Simic, Marilyn Chin, and Susan Atefat-Peckham. Each of these three poets writes in English in an American setting but has a different heritage. Simic is a native Yugoslavian (Serbia) who fled Europe during WWII. Chin arrived in the U.S. from Hong Kong as a child, and Atefat-Peckham is a first-generation American raised by Iranian parents. Each of these poets expresses some degree of assimilation and double-consciousness (as described by various theorists including W.E.B. Du Bois and Werner Sollors, among others) through the form and content of their poetry. This paper compares the three poets' work, attempting to draw inferences on how double-consciousness and assimilation is expressed in their poems and to what degree. This study argues that Simic is the least assimilated (as his poetry portrays the most severe double-consciousness), Chin is in-between and Atefat-Peckham the most assimilated.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.A.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year

2008

Author dc:creator

• Kidder, Katherine

Contributors dc:contributor

• Gery, John R.O.
• Tuley, Laura
• Osundare, Olawaniyi

• Susan Atefat-Peckham
• American poetry
• assimilation
• double-consciousness
• Marilyn Chin
• multiculturalism
• poetry
• Charles Simic
• W.E.B Du Bois
• Werner Sollors

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/875

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-1855