Arielle Greenberg (born 1972) is a feminist poet and the poetry editor of ''

Black Clock ''Black Clock'' was an American literary magazine that published twenty-one issues over twelve years. Edited by Steve Erickson, the magazine was "dedicated to fiction, poetry and creative essays that explore the frontier of constructive anarchy.. ...

''. She is most renowned for naming and describing the concept of the Gurlesque in the anthology ''Gurlesque: the new grrly, grotesque, burlesque poetics'', which she co-edited with Lara Glenum.

Biography

Greenberg was an assistant professor in the English Department at Columbia College

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

.Wilkinson, Joshua Marie. Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook. 307. eBook. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=e2dLVe3p_loC&oi=fnd&pg=PA303&dq="arielle greenberg"&ots=rZhBIpAJXL&sig=8JTuN3Rnm93j_XH2f-K84TvQ_QI'' She is now living with her family in rural Maine. They are working on an oral history-style book on the

back-to-the-land movement A back-to-the-land movement is any of various agrarian movements across different historical periods. The common thread is a call for people to take up smallholding and to grow food from the land with an emphasis on a greater degree of self-suffi ...

in that area.Greenberg, Arielle. "Biography." ArielleGreenberg.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 October 2011. .

Concept of The Gurlesque

"The words of the gurlesque „luxuriate: they roll around in the sensual while avoiding the sharpness of overt messages, preferring the curve of sly mockery to theory or revelation‟.Sheehy, John. "Pleasure in the Gap: Kate Lille'ys Cross-Pollinated Poetic and Academic Discourses." Sydney Studies. 35. (2009): 100-101. Web. 30 October 2011. . " "The term Gurlesque comes from a combination of "1. The

Carnivalesque Carnivalesque is a literary mode that subverts and liberates the assumptions of the dominant style or atmosphere through humor and chaos. It originated as "carnival" in Mikhail Bakhtin's ''Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics'' and was further develope ...

. 2. The

Burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

. (and the

Neo-Burlesque Neo-Burlesque, or New Burlesque, is the revival and updating of the traditional American burlesque performance. Though based on the traditional burlesque art, the new form encompasses a wider range of performance styles; neo-burlesque acts can r ...

).3. The

Riot Grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultur ...

s... Also, the

Grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

."Greenberg, Arielle. Gurlesque. Saturnalia, 2006. 2. Print. " The term describes a very wide range of things and is a concept that even Greenberg has had trouble pinning down. Lara Glenum describes it in her introduction to Gurlesque as a kistchy, campy take on feminism. Gurlesque is an

Avant Garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or 'vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical De ...

view of feminism which followed many of the same ideas of disrupting

gender roles A gender role, also known as a sex role, is a social role encompassing a range of behaviors and attitudes that are generally considered acceptable, appropriate, or desirable for a person based on that person's sex. Gender roles are usually cent ...

that allowed the

Kinderwhore Kinderwhore was a clothing style used by a handful of mostly female grunge bands in the US during the early to mid-1990s. The kinderwhore look consisted of torn, ripped tight or low-cut babydoll and Peter-Pan-collared dresses, slips, knee-socks ...

look and Riot Grrrl "movement" to take hold. Glenum and Greenberg both insist that, like the Riot Grrll "movement", Gurlesque poetics is "not a movement or a camp or a clique." The concept of the Gurlesque merely strings together a common strain that Greenberg noticed flowing through modern

feminist poetry Feminist poetry is inspired by, promotes, or elaborates on feminist principles and ideas. It might be written with the conscious aim of expressing feminist principles, although sometimes it is identified as feminist by critics in a later era. Some w ...

in the early 2000s.

Works

Books of Poetry *"''Fa(r)ther Down: Songs from the Allergy Trials''" *"''Given''" *"''Locally Made Panties"'' *"''My Kafka Century''" *"''Share Her"'' *"''Slice"'' Non-Fiction Work *"''Youth Subcultures: Exploring Underground America''" Editor of *"''Home/Birth: A Poemic''"; *"''Gurlesque: the new grrly, grotesque, burlesque poetics''"; *"''Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days''"; *"''Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections''"; *"''Mirror-Fucation''" and *"''Mister Hay's Trippy Moebius''". *"''Pisacho''". Greenberg currently lives in

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

with her family.SwitchBack Books (2011). ''"SwitchBack Books Advisory Board." Switch Back Books. Switch Back Books, 2011. Web. 30 October 2011.''

Biography

Concept of The Gurlesque

Works

References

Further reading