Interpoetics or the poetics of culture and the culture of poetics in Hannah Lowe, Russell Leong, Marilyn Chin, and Fred Wah

Interpoetics is the betweenness and connection between poetry and poetics, viewed from different angles - an examination of the space between that uncovers more about poet, text, image, influence, and genre because it is between and of both sides. The inter is a hyphen, representing either/or and both/and: the cultural poetics of betweenness. Such liminality relates to identity and, thus, a Chinese diasporic or hyphenated poetics. This article examines the poets Hannah Lowe, Russell Leong, Marilyn Chin, and Fred Wah, who explore their own identities: Chinese, American, Canadian, English-speaking, hybrid, and the voice of the poet. How do these poets speak for themselves in a culture that did not always let them speak, and negotiate their art and hybridity or other aspects of their selves as people and artists in ways that refuse, evade, or break the stereotype? Being Anglo Chinese is being or writing in English in an English-speaking country.

Automated summary

This article discusses poets such as Hannah Lowe, Russell Leong, Marilyn Chin, and Fred Wah, who explore their own identities and use their voices to refuse, evade, or break stereotypes.