Poetry, Politcs, and Personal Reflection: Redefining the Lyric in Claudia Rankine's Citizen Anonymous College

The world of poetics often views, and uses, lyric poetry as a self-reflective tool because of its ability to engage the poet in a deep exploration of their inner self. Thus, the subject matter of lyric poetry is typically unconcerned with society and the political world, instead offering insight into the poet’s innermost thoughts and emotions. In her book of poetry, Citizen: An American Lyric, however, Claudia Rankine redefines and politicizes the lyric form by using it to reflect on an overtly political issue: anti-blackness in America. More specifically, she mediates on the psychological trauma black people endure as a consequence of racial violence and microaggressions. Through her politically charged lyric, Rankine argues that, for black people in America, self-reflection and one’s innermost “private space” are often consumed by racialized thoughts and cannot be disconnected from the political world. Thus, Citizen’s lyric form offers all audiences—especially white audiences—a new perspective on anti-blackness in American society.

Through Rankine’s political interactions with the lyric form, she argues that to be black in America is to have even your most intimate self-reflections consumed by racialized thoughts. And though...