To say that art is always political, even when it is not obviously politically engaged, is a truism often used by artists who don’t want to do the difficult work of figuring out, or owning up to, the (usually conservative, in the sense of contributing to the status quo) politics of their art. I hear this truism most commonly from poets who can think of no better response to the question of whether poetry should be politically engaged, and I often think the response is rooted in their own guilt that they do not take on in their work the significant issues of the day. (Of course, there are also poets, not to mention academics, publishers, politicians and others, who are conservative, plain and simple, who refuse to acknowledge that the impulse to poetry often emerges directly from politics, such as those who would lionize a poet like Langston Hughes, but only as long as his work is presented in its most deracinated form.)
Yet there are, of course, contexts in which are is always political and the the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of them. This video is of an experimental theater group called Naqsh is beautiful, I think, but what makes it especially poignant, interesting and political–in addition to its content, because just think about what it means in Iran to show even as much of the contours of the female body as is shown here–is the fact that the group can only perform in front of 10 or 15 person audiences in the home of the director Sahar Eftekharzade. (You can read the whole article over at Tehran Bureau.)
Interesting. In the SF community, the stakes are reversed; political work is considered bad in many circles, so people claim they’re not doing it. But they are, of course; whether they are reinforcing the status quo or not–and we rarely perceive the status quo as political, but it is–it’s still a set of political choices.
So: huh. Odd to hear the poet’s side.
Mandolin – a similar conversation occurs in the mental health fields, where there is tension between those who see clinical work as an opportunity to be informed by principles of social justice, and those who say that therapy shouldn’t “be political,” who of course never acknowledge that supporting the power dynamics of the status quo through non-intervention is of course political.
Richard – that video is fascinating and beautiful, and reminds me of what I miss about being in theatre.
Mandolin,
So I am wondering how your work gets seen. Political or not? I have sometimes wondered if the poems in my second, as yet unpublished book, give people problems because they are so explicitly political, in the broadest sense of that term. But that may be just today’s sour grapes. I just found out I did not win one of the contests I decided to enter since the prize was enough money to make it worth it.