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Kathy Acker

File:1996_Kathy_Acker_004.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Kathy Acker

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Also known as Karen Lehmann, Black Tarantula, Clay Fear, The Black Tarantula

American novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet (1947–1997)

Person · Open Library

Born
1948
Died
1997
Works
68

Top works

  • I dreamt I became a nymphomaniac!
  • Cindy Sherman
  • The Last Sex
  • Great expectations
  • Kathy Acker (1971-1975)

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
United Kingdom
Active from
1929-01-28
Active to
2014-11-02
1960s1970s1980sbritishbritish jazzdixieland

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
991
Total plays
5,200

Tags

spoken wordkill rock starsAvant-Gardeexperimentalpost-punk

Kathy Acker (née Karen Lehmann) (18 April 1947 – 30 November 1997) was an American experimental novelist, punk poet, playwright, essayist, postmodernist and sex-positive feminist writer. She was strongly influenced by the Black Mountain School, William S. Burroughs, David Antin, French critical theory, philosophy, and pornography. Born to a wealthy Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, Acker took her last name from her first husband, Robert Acker; though born as Karen, she was known as Kat

via Last.fm · Kathy Acker

Quotes

  • In the total devastation of the heart which is the world, the lands-lords rule. There is no way we can defeat the landslords. But under their reins and their watchful eyes.I sail as the winds of lusts and emotions bare me. Everywhere and anywhere. I who will never own, whatever and whenever I want, I take.
  • It's all up to you, girls. You have to be strong. These are the days of post-women's liberation. You have grown up by now and you have to take care of yourself. No one's going to help you.
  • Even a woman who has the soul of a pirate, at least pirate morals, even a woman who prefer loneliness to the bickerings and constraints of heterosexual marriage, even such a woman who is a freak in our society needs a home.Even freaks needs homes, countries, language, communication.The only characteristic freaks share is our knowledge that we don't fit in. Anywhere. Is it for you, freaks, my loves, I am writing and it is about you.
  • You create identity, you're not given identity per se. What became more interesting to me wasn't the I, it was text because it's texts that create the identity. That's how I got interested in plagiarism.
  • At a certain point I realized that the "I" doesn't exist. So I said to myself: If the "I" doesn't exist, I have to construct one, or maybe even more than one.
  • My nutritionist read my pathology report and said, "There's only one way you can beat your cancer." "What's that?" "You have to find out what caused it."

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Key facts

Born
Karen Lehman , ( 1947-04-18 ) April 18, 1947 (disputed) , New York City, New York, U.S.
Died
November 30, 1997 (1997-11-30) (aged 50), Tijuana , Baja California , Mexico
Occupation
Novelist poet playwright essayist critic performance artist
Citizenship
United States
Subject
Sexual politics, sexual taboo, sexual desire, queer and female fantasy, power dynamics, fragmented identity, childhood trauma, death and disease, violence and abuse, adolescent rebellion, pornography, literary plagiarism, language as resistance and inadequacy
Literary movement
Postmodernism Post-structuralism Post-structural feminism Blank Generation (literary) New Narrative
Notable works
Blood and Guts in High School (novel), Great Expectations , New York (short story)
Notable awards
Pushcart Prize (1979)
Spouse
Robert Acker (1966–19??), Peter Gordon (1976; annulled)

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image
1996 Kathy Acker 004.jpg
Show 3 more facts
date of birth
1944-04-18
date of death
1997-11-30
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~37 min read

Article

Kathy Acker (April 18, 1947 [disputed] – November 30, 1997) was an American experimental novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, critic, performance artist, and postmodernist writer, known for her idiosyncratic and transgressive writing that dealt with complex themes such as childhood trauma, sexuality, language, identity, and rebellion. Her writing incorporates pastiche and the cut-up technique, involving cutting-up and scrambling passages and sentences; she also defined her writing as existing in the post-nouveau roman European tradition. In her texts, she combines biographical elements, power, sex and violence.

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