THE HIDDEN STATE & THE RHETORIC OF POETIC CAMOUFLAGE

WORKSHOP OVERVIEW

In this workshop, participants are invited to consider ways poets have responded to state-sponsored oppression, surveillance, and censorship with four common patterns of poetic camouflage.

These camouflaged responses exist in THE HIDDEN STATE, the subterranean layer of rhetorical meaning existing beneath the oppressive "Public Transcript."

The four patterns of poetic camouflage acknowledge the rhetorical situation of composing verse on a vulnerable topic (heartbeat) for two audiences: (1) the oppressor/censor to achieve compliance, and (2) a sympathetic reader who will be able to see through the shell or jacket of the camouflage to the signal or vulnerable heartbeat of resistance.

THE RHETORIC OF POETIC CAMOUFLAGE is the overarching pedagogical and survival methodology of THE HIDDEN STATE.

It is the strategic use of compliant BIOLOGICAL, HISTORICAL, TECHNICAL, OR BUREAUCRATIC patterns (the "Shell") to protect and transmit vulnerable, resistant truths (the "Heartbeat") from state-sponsored surveillance, legislative erasure, or institutional audits.

THE RHETORIC OF POETIC CAMOUFLAGE is both an analytical tool for reading examples of poetic camouflage and for generating new ones.

In this workshop, we will practice both uses of this tool: to look at historic examples of poetic camouflage and practice creating new poems that hide these truths.

REGISTRATION & INQUIRIES: Please contact editor@texaspoetryassignment.org.

Note: This workshop is a scholarly inquiry. All generated data is for pilot research purposes only.

To join, click this link: https://meet.google.com/bpp-hyvc-ytf