Appropriating primal indeterminacy:: language, lansdscape and postmodern poetics in Susan!Howe's 'Thorow'

Susan Howe's long poem Thorow (1987) explores notions of the American wilderness. The contemporary American poet's ideas on the intertwining of colonialism, language and landscape are announced in her preface. The ensuing poem develops some of these positions but derives its impact chiefly from the condensed and refractory nature of Howe's writing. This article makes the case for a re-interpretation of the historical poetics of Thorow that is guided by Thoreau and Freud rather than the manifestations of postmodern theory that Howe alludes to in her preface. The occasion for the article is a CD, Thiefth (Blue Chopsticks, 2005), on which Howe reads Thorow alongside audio material by musician David Grubbs. It is argued that this version of Thorow revitalises the poem by omitting the preface and by drawing attention to the writing's aural qualities.