Anna Poletti
Anna Poletti is Associate Professor of English Language and Culture at Utrecht University, and a Senior Research Fellow at Monash University’s Centre for the Book. Her research interest is contemporary life writing. For more information see: https://www.uu.nl/staff/ALPoletti/0
All essays by Anna Poletti
Discarding Congeniality: lessons from the life of Kathy Acker
Kraus’s oeuvre has been dedicated to the writing of unlikeable women; challenging congeniality as the bedrock of femininity and exploring the uncomfortable and often humorous situations generated by ambitious, creative women when they cast off congeniality and conventional sexuality. That Acker was a difficult, competitive and transient friend, peer, collaborator and lover makes her an ideal subject for Kraus to continue her work of intervening in conversations about women writers, what the avant-garde is and where it is located.