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Abi Tupa
ENGL 399
Naito
Multivalent Moments: The Cultivation of Textual Inclusivity in the Poetry of Harryette Mullen

Gertrude Stein is at once famous and little known, writes Harriet Scott Chessman of
the influential twentieth century poet. Indeed, Steins texts have served as points of inspiration
for a host of writersboth her contemporaries and modern poetsbut they remain largely
unaccessed by the general public due to her complex writing techniques. While Steins work
Tender Buttons is hailed as innovative in terms of both form and content, her elusive style
disguises her feminist discourse and prevents her from making outright critiques about the
society in which she lives. Steins intense focus on avoiding poetic associations prevents the
poems of Tender Buttons from making clear, forceful commentaries on the feminine condition in
particular.
In her triage of formerly published poetry, Recyclopedia, contemporary poet Harryette
Mullen picks up where Stein leaves off by paralleling her forebears prosaic verse and joyful
linguistic modulations. In departure from Stein, however, Mullens poetry accepts and even
depends upon the cultural capital of her poetic references to provide points of access for readers.
Mullens writing intentionally incorporates terms, phrases, and lines that invite different
interpretations depending on the perspective of an individual reader. These multivalent moments
within the poetry ground the texts ability to create an inclusive space that encourages
identification and participation in the poetic experience. In doing so, Mullens writing gives
agency to the reader and encourages a reading process that activates community awareness and
engagement.

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Starting with Stein
Truly, you have to go into Tender Buttons with a lot of equipment, searchlights, safety
ropes, writes literary critic Neil Schmitz when describing Steins notoriously confusing
collection of poetry (97). Schmitzs sentiment summarizes the feelings of many of Steins readers
as they endeavor to understand the modernists style. Upon first glance, Tender Buttons looks less
like poetry and more like the first draft of manuscript still unsure of its direction. Passages vary in
length from what appear to be titled sentences such as A Cutlet: A blind agitation is manly
and uttermost, to poems filling six pages of left-justified text (Tender Buttons 22, 33-39). Genre
conventions such as rhyme scheme, meter, and stanza structure fall to the wayside as Stein leans
in to the medium of the modernist prose poem. Stripped of these formal features, her poetry
communicates in a less orchestrated, direct way, and instead captures the immediacy of a given
moment. This form fits Steins mission, because an individual does not experience reality in
stanzas, grammatically sound sentences, or even direct descriptionone dwells instead on the
essence of her surroundings and the present instant of her perception (Chessman 88).
When properly equipped and Schmitz suggests, Steins writing style has been a point of
fascination for critics and of inspiration for poets following in her feminist, avant-garde
footsteps. Critic Elizabeth A. Frost argues Steins nonreferentiality is her most impactful literary
legacy (Feminist Avant-Garde 140). This quality inspired groups writing in her wake, such as the
Language poets, who increasingly emphasized the role of the reader in devising meaning from a
literary text (140).
However, critic Deborah Mix hesitates to claim Steins poetry serves as a direct template
for future writers, but instead suggests the poet donates a vocabulary of thinking about feminist
experimentalism, readerly intimacy, and genre: Her innovative work proposes varying

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strategiesat the level of the word, the sentence, the paragraph, the genreto
contemporarypoets who inherit possibility and probability from Steins linguistic
experiments (Vocabulary of Thinking 3).
Tender Buttons in particular picks up on these linguistic possibilities and takes the
opportunity to rewrite the conventional rules of syntax and logic, to defamiliarize household
objects, and to force a reconceptualization of domestic spaces. In order to achieve these ends,
Steins language takes on an intangible quality as she avoids direct references. Her writing
refrains from this type of identification because giving a specific name to the image would restrict
the reader by binding them to their conventional descriptions of a given object. Schmitz
concludes: In Gertrude Steins definition a demonstrative pronoun abruptly turns our attention
from the innocent universal to the awful particular (Schmitz 99).
Steins interview in the UCLAN Review illustrates her opposition to associative diction
firsthand. For example, she takes issue with her own choice to use the term dirty in a selection
from Tender Buttons titled A Piece of Coffee saying: Dirty has an association and is a word
that I would not use now. I would not use words that have definite associations, (A Primer 26).
By challenging herself to move beyond direct association, Steins exploration of the objects, food,
and rooms of Tender Buttons implores the reader to reconceptualize the sense of femininity and
domesticity affiliated with these concepts. In doing so, the text calls the reader to cease
replicating antiquated beliefs about the place of women in society.

Modifying Steins Technique

In the forward of her collection Recyclopedia, Harryette Mullen openly admits she is
interested in (Steins) meditation on the interior lives of women and the material culture of

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domesticity within works such as Tender Buttons, but also distances herself from the cryptic
code developed by her forebear (Recylopedia x). Mullens own proclaimed inability to understand
Steins paradoxically simple yet elusive poetic prose evidences a key barrier to Steins literary
consumption on the public scale (x). Elizabeth Frost notes Mullen is not alone in her critique of
Steins elusive prosea host of feminist thinkers such as Luce Irigaray and Monique Wittig find
the writers discourse problematic because it ignores the social implications of language (139). By
avoiding words with associations, Stein perhaps simultaneously disowns language with power
and influence. Although Tender Buttons interrogates issues of feminism, it represents a highly
private feminist liberation due to this lack of impactful language, and as such, is not easily
recognized by readers (5).
Contrarily, in her essay Imagining the Unimagined Reader Mullen expresses her devotion
to maximizing the clarity of her texts: I aspire to write poetry that would leave no
insurmountable obstacle to comprehension and pleasure other than the ultimate limits of the
readers interest and linguistic competence (6). Although she does not say so outright, Mullen
nods to Steins camouflaged discourse and distaste for associative diction.
Unlike Steins poetry, Mullens writing sees associations as point of access for these
potential readers, and directly capitalizes on a process of linguistic layering to create an inclusive
textual experience. Song lyrics, slogans, historical references, puns, slangs, vernaculars, clichs
and other cultural sentiments surface within Mullens poetry in complex and overlapping ways to
provide points of entry for a variety of diverse readers. References infused with cultural capital
demand the public eye more readily, despite presenting the threat of standard, static

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interpretations, as Stein feared. In reality, each reference carries powerful connotations
independent of the context of the poem that build and regenerate between readers.
Mullens poetry toys with its references by placing them in unexpected contexts and
pairings in order to forge new commentaries. Critic Robin Tremblay-McGaw notes Mullens
writing enables the critical recycling of problematic materials to produce something new,
something with different or oppositional value for writer, reader, history, and the future, (74).
This process yields poetry laden with multivalent phrases that simultaneously provide
opportunity for identification and defamiliarization for different communities. Mullen herself
uses a technological metaphor to explain the connections her the references in her poetry form:
Ive been thinking about hypertext virtual shuffling as a technological metaphor for how Ive
written . . . Ive been thinking about allusion as a hot spot, the allusion leading you to another
page and another page, (Mysterioso Blues 202). In this sense, Mullens writing invites the
reader to let her curiosities drive her reading experience, both by engaging with content that is
familiar, and educating oneself about content that is not. Instead of reducing while reusing,
Mullens poetry thus expands its commentary in the recycling process and welcomes in new
readerships and knowledge accumulation.
Although Mullens poetry includes a range of cultural and historical references, it is also
particularly attentive to bringing to the surface the unarticulated, marginalized, nearly lost, and
invisible as well as the "used" or "waste" material, (Tremblay-McGaw 75). The poems extend
their welcome at a linguistic level: My inclination is to pursue what is minor, marginal,
idiosyncratic, trivial, debased, or aberrant in the language that I speak and write, (Unimagined
Reader 6). In looking to the anomalies of the English language, Mullens atypical choices of
diction and syntax parallel her poetrys ability to give voice to populations whom are regularly

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overlooked, starting with the modern female and ending with arms spread wide to all
communities.

Expanding a Dialogue: Direct Revisions on Stein

Mullens direct expansion of one of Steins most noted selections in Tender Buttons, A
Petticoat serves as an explicit example of Mullens recycling technique, which in this instance
teases out the hidden feminist threads in Steins writing. Mullens version, however, moves
beyond first wave feminism and instead brings to consciousness the additional obstacles women
of color experience when aiming to have their rights recognized.
Steins original poem, in full, reads: A light white, a disgrace, an ink spot, a rosy charm,
(Tender Buttons 22). Exemplifying Steins non-associative writing style, the poem disallows a
concrete conceptualization of its subject matter. The line makes no explicit mention of fabric,
skirts, pleats, or frills, but depends upon the mental impression a typical petticoat conveys. The
mention of an ink spot vaguely alludes to an indiscretion bringing disgrace, yet the reader is
left to hypothesize the subjects flaw.
Deborah Mix notes many Stein critics see this poem as a commentary on the necessity of
veiling female sexuality (Vocabulary of Thinking 40). Steins poem not only hints at womens
societal expectation to physically mask signs of their sexuality with the light white fabric of
undergarments, but to furthermore bury sexual desires or evidence of sexual experience that
would demerit an unmarried woman. Only in this way are women able to achieve a palatable,
rosy charm.
However, the brevity, balance, and ordering of imagery within A Petticoat complicates
the extent to which the poem develops an effective critique of patriarchal expectations. Frost

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notes the reader is kept at a deliberate, perhaps infuriating distance from Steins subjects
(Feminist Avant-Garde 140). The progression of descriptions defies logic, as Steins writing leaps
from images connoting purity to those of shame, blunder, and a subsequent return to favorable
charm without so much as end punctuation to separate the thoughts. Each of the fragments links
to the next, making the significance of the progression difficult to discern.
Found in her collection, Trimmings, Mullens version A Light White reinvents the
context under which Steins initial poem takes place, and in doing so, expands its predecessors
generalized critique of sexual restrictions for females. Mullens poem reclaims the racialized
language present within Steins version to bring attention to the disenfranchisement minority
women experience regarding their own sexualities. In a third wave feminist manner, the poem
highlights a need for greater intersectionality in modern society. Her reimagined account in
Trimmings reads:
A light white disgraceful sugar looks pink, wears an air, pale compared to shadow
standing by. To plump recliner, naked truth lies. Behind her shadow wears her
color, arms full of flowers. A rosy charm is pink. And she is ink. The mistress
wears no petticoat or leaves. The other is in shadow, a large, pink dress.
(Recyclopedia 11)
Mullens reuses elements of each phrase of Steins original text, as if to absorb and repurpose its
entire commentary. While the terms light white, disgraceful, and a rosy charm, are
replicated verbatim from Steins poem, the phrase an ink spot undergoes significant
modulation in Mullens remake. This change becomes the focus of her adaptation, and after the
process of recycling its context and connotations, what was once a meager blotch spreads to into
a silhouette: And she is ink. In this moment, Mullens poem capitalizes on the racially charged

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language of Steins original work, bringing with it the undertones of shame and shroud, to build
a character representative of the inequities in female sexual expression.
Both subjects of the poem are introduced solely in terms of their racial makeupa
technique that essentializes each individual. The first sentence lacks gendered pronouns to
accompany the figures characterizations so that neither is referenced as a woman, but instead as
a hue. In doing so, the poem mimics the dehumanization women of all racial backgrounds
experience in a patriarchal society. Yet, even in her dismemberment, the poems light white
subject takes priority, both through her spatial placement in the poems opening words and in
her characters sense of presence. While she maintains enough physicality to look pink and
wear an air, her counterpart lacks any concrete dimension. Introduced as shadow standing by,
the second figure is referenced without so much as an indefinite article to distinguish herself as
an a distinct individual. The color of her complexion literally hides her from public view, and she
fades from visibility both physically and socially. Placed in political context, the subjects
indiscernibility comes to represent an ignorance of the status of minority women and even more
poignantly, an exclusion from any sexual liberation their light skinned counterparts enjoy.
Although Mullens characterizations convey a powerful message even as unidentified
women, the poem can be interpreted multivalently when viewed through a historical lens. Mix
and other critics have noted Mullens imagery pays specific reference to the subjects of the
Edouard Manets impressionist painting, Olympia (Vocabulary of Thinking 40). The poem makes
use of this historical artifact to build a commentary on the stagnancy of womens rights,
particularly for women of color. The imbedded reference serves as a layer of meaning or hot spot
for populations conscious of the history of gender and racial politics depicted in this scene.

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In Manets painting, a white woman poses in the nude, while a black servantbarely
discernable due to shadowstends to her from her spot in the background. Olympiawho
corresponds to Mullens first subjectoccupies nearly the entirety of the scene in her naked
truth while the dark-skinned servant wears her color. In one reading, wears her color may
reference the servants skin color itself, treating it as a burdensome garment she cannot shed. Mix
interprets this phrase to reference the color of Olympia, however (41). The painting indeed
shows the maid clad in a voluminous, pale pink dress that leaves only the very leasther face and
handsvisible. Similar to the commentary found in Steins Petticoat the maid must shroud her
socially prescribed inferiorities from view. Mix notes the dark-skinned maid remains cloaked in
traditional pink and white femininity, existing apparently to bolster the privilege of Olympias
femininity and sexuality, (41). Although the mistress naturally appears a shade of pink, her
counterparts only means of achieving the same desirable rosy charm requires draping herself in
folds of fabric of a comparable hue.
In contrast, the fact that Olympia wears no petticoat or leaves, suggests a lack of shame
in her nudity. Recycled biblical imagery of leaves associates the mistresss unapologetic
nakedness with the nudity of Adam and Eve. Only after sinning do Adam and Eve feel the need
to cover themselves with foliage. By connecting this reference with the white figure, Mullen
draws attention to societal perceptions of blamelessness and purity for certain races, while others
are seen as tainted and in need of coverage. However, a more careful consideration of the biblical
reference Mullens poem also repurposes allusion to reflect ignorance toward issues of
intersectionality. The mistresss prevailing nudity suggests her character has not yet consumed
fruit from the tree of knowledge, and instead remains in her own shroud of ignorance over
matters of equality and inclusion. By bringing Manets 1863 painting into the conversation,

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Mullens poem points out not only the history of black womens exploitation, but also the lack of
progress in accepting, and furthermore, celebrating of black sexuality.

Stepping out the Door: Moving Beyond Steins Domestic Musings

Mullens revisions of Steins limited feminist discourse and evasive writing style provide a
macroscopic account of her poetrys recyclopedic technique. These adaptions lay the foundation
for her writings inclusive possibilities. However, Mullens poetry gains its true depth by recycling
and repurposing itself. As Tremblay-McGaw notes, Trimmings self-consciously reuses a diverse
set of references and cultural sources to infuse layers of meaning not only within a singular text,
but also across the collection (84). Just as terms take on differing interpretations within isolated
phrases and lines of her texts, so the terms adapt and draw alternate connections from poem to
poem. This phenomenon creates a body of text that is more holistically inclusive and
participatory. The changes in referential context and the key terms Mullen uses recurrently
throughout Trimmings also provide multiple and disparate readers a plethora of opportunities to
take pleasure in the references they recognize and to pursue . . . the others, (84). While a reader
may not identify with one poems key term, a later variant of the phrase or line could prove more
familiar and identifiable.
As if to illustrate this phenomenon, sentiments from A light white resurface within this
later selection of Trimmings, imbuing Mullens collection with even greater multivalent
possibilities than the singular examples of her poetry boasts:
Of a girl, in white, between the lines, in the spaces where nothing is written. Her
starched petticoats, giving him the slip. Loose lips, a telltale spot, where she was
kissed, and told. Who would believe her, lying still between the sheets. The

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pillow cases, the dirty laundry laundered. Pillow talk-show on a leather couch,
slips in and out of dreams. Without permission, slips out the door. A name adores
a Freudian slip. (Recyclopedia 18)
The specific terms petticoats and white once again appear in contiguous phrases of this
poem, yet the context of these references shifts notably from A Light White. No longer are the
undergarments a symbol of inequitable sexual politics between women of differing races, but of
the inequitable sexual politics between differing genders. In this sense, Mullens poem
interrogates the power dynamics of rape and the subsequent shaming women endure as a result
of sexual assault.
While A Light White uses the recurrence of petticoats and the concepts of coverage
and nudity to reinforce the shame women are subject to with respect to their sexualities, Of A
Girl moves beyond the concept of healthy sexual expression and into issues of sexual assault.
The poem opens with the subject standing in her lingerie, beginning to undress: Her starched
petticoats, giving him the slip. Here, the poems persona can be interpreted to literally hand
over her underwear to a male counterpart and in doing so, metaphorically hands over her
virginity. The reader questions the agency of the subject in this act when the poem says she was
kissed, and told. Mullens poem plays on the popular saying kiss and tellmeaning to
publically divulge ones sexual exploits. Shifting the verb tell from present tense to past tense
gives the impression the subject was forcefully instructed, and that sexual demands were made.
Here, Mullens poem begins to provoke an awareness of the importance of sexual consent and
the emotional damage many women experience from unwanted sexual contact.
Contrary to kiss and tell the interaction Mullens poem describes is anything but public
for the girl it depicts. Who would believe her, the poem queries directly following the deed in a

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telltale spot. This question conveys emotions of insignificance and fear arising out of her
manipulation. As a result, the poems subject feels vulnerable, yet unable to reach out for help.
Mullens writing brings these emotions to the forefront of her poem, and in doing so, critiques
the ways in which sexual assailants often escape scot-free for their harms, yet victims accumulate
reputations.
The poem highlights this devastating truth through its use of white imagery, thus
highlighting the multivalence of the term between poems of the same collection. Although an
inherently racialized term, the use of white no longer serves to distinguish ethnic lines as it did
in A Light White but to connote innocence, particularly in conjunction with the poems use of
the youthful term girl. References to blank spaces build upon the sense of naivet the poem
conveys of its subject, particularly the places where nothing is written. Such absence draws
associations to a fresh piece of paper, a blank slate, or more philosophically and historically, the
concept of tabula rasa. Mullens poem recolors these virginal images later through a correlated
reference: lying still between the sheets. Once associated with a bedroom, references related to
paper retroactively take on the associations of a document upon which a list or track record of
sexual experiences accumulates for the poems female subject. The reference quickly progresses
from plain sheets to dirty laundry which suggests the subjects formerly pristine reputation has
been tainted, and she is no longer as desirable as she once was. Her insignificance in the eyes of
her sexual partner can be gathered from the way he without permission, slips out the door.
This individual shows little respect for the female he leaves behind, yet he experiences no
repercussions for his actions. In this instance, Mullens poem points out the problematic
differences in expectations between men and women in sexual situations.

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In addition to recurring terms white and petticoats, the repetitious variations of slip
throughout Of A Girl further reinforce the ability of Mullens poetry to regenerate multiple
meanings from within. In each instance, the terms mundane usage is undergirded with sexual
connotations, much in the same way women are viewed first as domestics, and secondlyif at
allsexual beings. While the first occurrence of the slip most directly conjures the image of an
undergarment, its proximity to the phrase loose lips also connotes a slip of the tongue in a kiss.
Slips in and out of dreams brings to mind the foggy, disillusioned feeling of drifting in and out
of sleep, or transitioning from dream to dream. However, the preceding phrase pillow talkshow suggests the line can also be read erotically. The hyphenation of talk-show dissociates
the term from its typical signification of a television program and it instead connotes the smooth
dialogue and playful undressing of foreplay. The process of talking and showing eventually
leads to the joining of bodies in sexual contact.
By using identical terms in diverse contexts, both with a given poem and throughout a
collection, Mullens poetry highlights the variable nature of language and its diverse applications.

Inter-Collection Modulations
Recyclopedia itself was born out of a recycling process. Its three sectionsTrimmings,
S*PeRM**K*T, and Muse & Drudgewere each originally published as independent collections,
and it was only later, that Graywolf Press enabled Mullen to reconstitute all three books into a
single text (Recyclopedia xi). A casual reader of Mullens work may make the mistake of
generalizing her tone and style when engaging with each text independently. Certainly similar
patterns of punning and repetition emerge in her poetry due to the an interest in the double-

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meanings present in the English language. When read in succession in the context of
Recyclopedia, however, distinct modulations in voice and structure emerge between the sections.
The final collection, Muse & Drudge, perhaps exhibits Mullens variations most overtly. A
distinctly polyvocal quality develops within this portion of her collection with which to
harmonize the moments of linguistic multiplicity and hot spots found throughout Recyclopedia.
Unlike the prosaic musings of Trimmings and S*PeRM**K*T, the final portion of the recycled
collection consists of a series of poems built into quatrains and tetrastiches. Despite a more
formal poetic structure, the poems toy with tradition by modulating line lengths, rhyme scheme,
and sense of voice in order to recycle the genre conventions of blues music and folk poetry.
Mullen claims to use alterations in her writing techniques, such as those embodied in
Muse & Drudge, to intercept new readers: One reason I have avoided a singular style or voice for
my poetry is the possibility of including diverse audience of readers attracted to different poems
and different aspect of the work. I try to leave room for unknown readers I can only imagine,
(Unimagined Reader 8). Yet, Mullen admits challenges arise amidst her drive to create
meaningful textsobstacles that are at times incited by her own techniques: I do not necessarily
approach this goal by employing a beautiful, pure, simple, or accessible literary language or by
maintaining a clear, consistent, recognizable, or authentic voice in my work, (8). Here, Mullen
admits her writing threatens to commit the same sin as Steins elusive prose, but in doing so, she
hopes it will paradoxically create space for new readers.
Ultimately, the use of multiple voices within a Mullens poetry parallels the existence of
diverse voices within society as a whole. Mixing these perspectives into a unified text valorizes
the presence of these contrasting points of view and seeks to further include a range of cultural,
socioeconomic, racial, and gender backgrounds who finally find themselves spoken for. The

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differing paces, rhythms, and perspectives not only create a text that is variant and inviting, but
more crucially encourage information seeking when decoding the text.
The stanzas of Muse & Drudge find themselves replete with abrupt shifts in perspective
and tone, which establishes the polyvocal nature of Mullens poetry. The opening stanza of If
Your Complexion is a Mess reads: if your complexion is a mess / our elixir spells skin success /
youll have appeal bewitch be adored / hechizando con crema deblanqueadora (1-4). The first
two lines of the quatrain develops the tone of a TV commercial or radio advertisement as a result
of the jaunty end rhyme. The lines appear to be narrated by a salesman and directed at the reader
herself he identifies physical flaw within her complexion. However, the last line of the stanza
suddenly shifts from the clear, persuasive diction of an advertisement meant to appeal to all
women, to that of a complexly consonant Spanish phrase that only comprehensible to bilingual
readers. This language shift encourages a non-Spanish speaking reader to pursue means to
decode the phrase in order to fully grasp the message of the stanza, particularly because the text
does not supply footnotes explaining its own referencesthe reader must assert her own agency
to disentangle the message.
Tremblay-McGaw confirms that Mullens writing makes important demands of its
readers: To travel with this text, readers must take on the responsibility, pleasure, and
difficulties of following and reusing the textual paths and materials with which the text is
produced (84-85). In researching the language shift, the reader asserts the sense of responsibility
Tremblay-McGaw describes and thus develops a greater sense of cultural awareness, not only
from pursuing a translation, but also from realizing the implications of this translation:
bewitching with skin bleaching cream (Word Reference).

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In this reference, Mullens writing again interrogates the various iterations of
whitenessthis time in relation to beauty standards, and in doing so, maintains a crosscollection multivalence of terms. In this account, the poem slips into Spanish in order to more
effectively represent minority perspectives who feel societal pressure to conform to Western
beauty ideals, including fair skin. The language shift verbally replicates the feeling of otherness
experienced by minority women in relation to their white counterparts, especially in advertising.
Faces of white women dominate the ad space in nearly every area of fashion and beauty: TV
commercials, magazine spreads, runways, and certainly beauty lines. Translating the last line into
Spanish further removes minority women from these spheres by insinuating they require a
separate dialogue in order to be reached.
At the same time, the fluid yet percussive phrase hechizando con crema deblanqueadora
interrupts the earlier perky, consumerist narrative of the poem in a similar way its translation
hopes to interrupt ignorance toward the privileges of white lineage (4). By presenting these
terms, Mullens poem brings to consciousness problematic beauty trends, such as skin bleaching,
taking place globally to uphold ideas of white preferentiality. Much like A Light White
Mullens writing advocates not only for an awareness of the minority womans experience, but
also a change in the way society perceives these women.
New voices and perspectives emerge later in the same poem, thus reinforcing the
polyvocal possibilities of Muse & Drudge as the poem takes on a songlike quality. The last stanza
reads: color weve got in spades / melanin gives perpetual shade / though rhythms no answer to
cancer / pancakes pale and butter can get rancid (9-12). Although the middle section of the
poem abandons the end rhyme patterns established in the poems opening lines, this last quatrain
reintroduces and reinvents the poems rhyme scheme, giving it a musical quality. Unlike the

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perfect rhyme of the first stanza, the final quatrain employs clever slant rhymes between spade
and shade, and between cancer and rancid. Paired with the complex and polyrhythmic
lines this stanza mimics the sound found in blues and jazz music.
In her essay Kinky Quatrains: The Making of Muse & Drudge Mullen confirms her
inspiration for the rhythmic development of this stanza: My writing is improvisatory, and
certainly I have been influenced by vocal and instrumental . . . Some of the lines I write aspire to
certain moments in jazz when scat becomes a kind of inspired speaking . . . when an utterance is
pure music. (16-17). In this final stanza of If your complexion is a mess, Mullens writing thus
pays tribute to the way music and song have been historical mediums of expression for black
communities. In doing so, the poem calls forth a lineage stretching from the cotton fields of the
deep south, through the urban speakeasies of the 20s and 30s, and into the present.
Multiple voices within just one poem of Muse & Drudgeand two stanzas at thatthus
are able to engage communities of all sorts: women in the cosmetics aisle, Spanish speaking
readers, black communities, and fans of rhythm and blues. However, her poetry does not aim to
merely collect these readers independently, but encourage the cross-pollination of
understandings. Tremblay-McGaw notes:
Mullen makes of writing and reading a communal engagement particularly salient
in the twenty-first century . . . Mullens writing retains the archival functions of
preservation and memory, but also sets in motion processes of critique,
enjoyment, destabilization, and movement into a future that is utopian and
ephemeralone that requires us to strain and stretch in its (our) diverse
directions (Tremblay-McGaw 91).

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In this way, Mullens writing not only invites identification and participation in its text, but
encourages critical assessment of the themes and references in relation to oneself and others.

Individual Interpretations, Community Engagement

Although the poetry collections included in Recyclopedia were in part inspired by the
advanced linguistic techniques and domestic musings of Gertrude Steins Tender Buttons,
claiming Harryette Mullen replicates her predecessors writing style and intents would vastly
ignore much of the important work Mullens writing undertakes. Her poetry in fact moves
beyond reimagining the surroundings bound by the home, and instead steps out the door to
witness an array of social exclusions present in society. Mullens writing initiates these
realizations by reusing and refurbishing terms of valencehistorical artifacts, slang terms,
translations, and moreto create texts that resonate for diverse communities.
However, the recycling process does not end with Mullen. As Tremblay-McGaw points
out, recycling is a lay activity, a feasible and productive strategy available to all but perhaps best
practiced in a communal fashion, (84). Mullens writing initiates a process of societal
reconsiderations and reuses, but her poetry depends upon community participation to spread. As
such, her poetry advocates a reading practice that entails acts of recycling as the writing process
does (86). In truth, Mullens poetry beckons the reader to develop a new way of perceiving
societally problematic content.
The overlapping references and pluralistic possibilities present within Mullens writing
ultimately suggest there is a certain responsibility to being a reader of poetry, and furthermore a
responsibility to being a participant in society. While it may be impossible to achieve the status
of the ideal reader who understands every literary reference, an engaged learner will show

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curiosities for the content before them. Just as a good consumer of literature seeks out the
references in a text, a good citizen, neighbor, and ally seeks out an understanding of the
challenges of her peers. The intriguing allusions, associations, perspectives, and pairings found in
Mullens poetry not only function to change the way a reader approaches a text, but also to alter
the way the reader relates to the problematic realities before her.

Works Cited
Chessman, Harriet Scott. The Public Is Invited to Dance: Representation, the Body, and
Dialogue in Gertrude Stein. Stanford, CA: Stanford UP, 1989.

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