ABSTRACT
Di Prima’s representation of Keats in recollections as an internal voice within the young female poet matches the energy with which he was embraced previously as a source to draw upon when mapping and rewriting a history of narratives of gender. At the same time, Di Prima’s imagining of Keats as a critical voice within the female poet illustrates the complexity of including “patrilinear” discourses in the history of the emergence of female authorship. Di Prima’s imaginary encounter with Keats and the narrative of the subsequent transformation of the younger female poet as someone who will at least try to write is a typical reenactment of feminist practices of revision, where the woman author finds her voice through a polemic dialogue with patriarchal discourses. Di Prima’s Keatsian poetics are a vital piece of the history of the emergence of female beat authorship as they help pinpoint the importance of intertextuality in the works of women of the beat generation.
