Gay Language as Political Praxis: The Poetry of Frank O'Hara

Abstract

Recent evidence suggests that the work of the New York poet, Frank O'Hara, is now on its way to becoming part of the American canon. The barriers to its acceptance have largely fallen, and the work of this poet of the 50s is now in the process of being assimilated within the educational system as an important event and text. For all intents and purposes the work of this poet has become legitimate. A satisfactory account of the critical acceptance of these once ill-reputed poems, however, is not likely to be found within the official discourse which is producing it. A demystification of the critical discourse about these poems may in fact require rethinking some of the current directions in text formulation. Raising the question of O'Hara's sexuality, largely repressed from critical discourse to date, may for this reason help us point to some strategical shifts in recent canonical perspectives and suggest in the process some of the changed social realities which such a discourse often masks. Indeed, serious discussion today seems to agree that the question of sexuality is long overdue on the agenda. Attacks on ERA and the women's movement in general and setbacks for gays from Dade County, Florida, to Eugene, Oregon, have gathered momentum and reached a focal point in what might be called the rise of a new fascism. Questions about the relation between capitalism and everyday life become more and more insistently a subject for both theoretical inquiry and practical concern for those whose basic commitment is to the structural change of society. Today social progressives can ignore these issues only at the risk of jeopardizing the whole left-progressive movement. Committed literary critics will want then to consider the unspoken assumptions of current text formulation in order to more clearly understand the mechanisms involved in literary attempts to rewrite basic social antagonisms.1