Small Lights.:On Poems, Coming-to-consciousness, and Conscience

Gräbner, Cornelia and Forché, Carolyn (2023) Small Lights.:On Poems, Coming-to-consciousness, and Conscience. Comparative Critical Studies. ISSN 1744-1854 (In Press)

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Abstract

The essay re-arranges elements of three conversations between the authors that took place online in May and June 2022. Throughout these conversations the authors explored themes around the poetics of dissent, oppositional consciousness, dissidence, and poetry of witness, always in relation to the process of coming-to-consciousness. The essay translates the resonant – as distinct to, linear – dynamic of the conversations into writing, and arranges the content in five central sections: Stepping Out, Immersions and Accompaniments, Countering Acquiescence, Being Present, Extremity, and Dissidence. Each section is introduced first by a quote by Forché, then by a brief reflection and conceptual conceptualization by Gräbner, and a key thought or term then introduces each train of thought, or paragraph. The themes emerge within a poetic, conceptual and political reflection on consciousness and conscience.