Ulusal Bi̇r Sanat Olarak Şi̇i̇r: Carol Ann Duffy’ni̇n Saray Şai̇rli̇ği̇ Dönemi̇ndeki̇ Poli̇ti̇k Şi̇i̇ri̇

Abstract

When Carol Ann Duffy became Britain's first female poet laureate in 2009, it was a surprise as Duffy has always been a political poet with very harsh criticism of government policies in her works. However, she made it clear that she would not be writing poems for the monarchy and the royal occasions unless she feels to. In an interview with Andrew McAllister in 1988, Carol Ann Duffy stated that her intention as a poet is "to present it, as it is" (72). She added, "poets don't have solutions, poets are recording the human experience." This manifesto informs her work as her political poems illustrate life in the multicultural Britain of the 1980s and 1990s with a close observation of the underprivileged and deprived in Standing Female Nude (1985), Selling Manhattan (1987), and The Other Country (1990). Duffy's laureate poems also reflect her concern to speak for the unvoiced, as for Duffy "poetry provides an important alternative voice to journalists or pundits or academics as a way of dealing with things that matter to us all" (Wroe, 2014, para 1). Thus, this paper is concerned with the political aspect of Duffy's laureate poems, focusing on her political poetry written during her poet laureateship between the years 2009-2019 mainly targeting politicians and highlighting public concerns. Accordingly, she speaks for the public, to present the social and emotional experience of living in contemporary Britain by way of highlighting public concerns of the British people by targeting her criticism to the politicians.