마가렛 앳우드(Margaret Atwood)는 1982년 출판된 비평모음집 『두 번째 말』(Second Words)에서 글쓰기를 "신념의 행위"이자 "희망의 행위 즉 현재의 상태보다 더 나아질 수 있다는 희망"으로 설명한다(349). 그녀에게 "압제는 상상력의 실패, 다른 사람들의 완전한 인간다움을 상상하는 것의 실패"를 말하고, 작가는 "인간적인 상상력, 소통하고자 하는 힘, 희망"(SW 397)의 세 가지 자질을 소유한 사람이다. 또한 그녀는 "만약 우리가 이 세상을 비판하는 것을 멈춘다면, 우리는 곧 무한히 더 나쁜 세상에 우리가 있음을 발견할 것이다."(SW 332-33)라고 주장하며 사회적 불평등을 대면하고 도전하는 것이 작가의 책임임을 표명했다. 앳우드는 문학 활동을 통해 국가들 혹은 개인들 사이에 존재하는 정치적 또는 미학적 힘의 관계에 관심을 보여 왔고, 그것은 종종 그녀의 작품 속에서 인간 주체나 국가를 분리하는 경계나 다양한 형태의 인간 간의 갈등이나 고통으로 제시되었다.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the implications of Charles Bernstein's 'aversive poetics' which Bernstein has executed against the Official Verse Culture (OVC) since his first attack at the 1983 MLA conference. As is 'shown and heard' in the word itself, 'averse' can be understood as a combination of 'a-,' which can be read as a prefix meaning 'swerving away from' as well as an indefinite article, and 'verse.' This being said, 'averse' means a poetics that is 'averse' to verse. An 'averse' poetics is an implosive poetics going against the grain of but still existing within OVC poetics, like a rebellious 'parasite' inside the OVC. What this seemingly treacherous poetics tries to achieve is to dismantle or derail coordinates of time/space/task predetermined by OVC poetics. According to Bernstein, OVC has been complicit with Bourgeoisie ideology by unknowingly maintaining and reproducing those coordinates, which have been essential to the operation of a Bourgeoisie regime. To have the time/space/task coordinates properly secured by preventing any trespassing and transgressions of the given coordinates, either in advance or afterwards, policing plays the main role in both regimes. Under the surveillance of police regimes, only consumption of pre-made coordinates like a 'prepackaged commodity' will be allowed, leading to an inevitable alienation. On the contrary, the main task of the 'averse' is to explore possibilities of 'different' or 'foreign' time/space/task coordinates on which a new regime can be established. The politics of poetics can be practiced through aversive poetics, through which readers are urged to practice reading against poets and original works. Instead of repeating poets and original works as a commodity, readers in aversive poetics can produce another 'foreign' or 'different' original, an-'anoriginal,' while consuming the poets and original works. Thus they will overcome alienation felt during simple and repetitive consumption of poets and works. With this understanding of Bernstein's aversive poetics, the battle between the 'averse' and OVC is discussed through an analysis of the debate between Charles Bernstein and D.W. Fenza, one of the OVC enforcers, and their supporting poets on either side.