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Public Figures
An investigation of the gap between sight and site

Public Figures is an essay-poem with photographs and text that begins with a playful thought experiment: statues of people in public spaces have eyes, but what are they looking at? To answer that question, Jena Osman sets up a camera to track the gaze of a number of statues in Philadelphia—mostly 19th century military figures carrying weapons. How does their point of view differ from our own? And how does it compare, say, to the point of view of other watchful military figures, such as drone pilots? In this book, Osman combines the histories behind these statues with poetic narratives that ask us to think about our own relational positions, and how our own everyday gaze may be complicit with the gun-sights of war. Public Figures illustrates how history is transformed, and even erased, by monuments and other public records of events. Through poetry, those histories can be made visible again. Check for the online reader's companion at http://publicfigures.site.wesleyan.edu.

1110053591
Public Figures
An investigation of the gap between sight and site

Public Figures is an essay-poem with photographs and text that begins with a playful thought experiment: statues of people in public spaces have eyes, but what are they looking at? To answer that question, Jena Osman sets up a camera to track the gaze of a number of statues in Philadelphia—mostly 19th century military figures carrying weapons. How does their point of view differ from our own? And how does it compare, say, to the point of view of other watchful military figures, such as drone pilots? In this book, Osman combines the histories behind these statues with poetic narratives that ask us to think about our own relational positions, and how our own everyday gaze may be complicit with the gun-sights of war. Public Figures illustrates how history is transformed, and even erased, by monuments and other public records of events. Through poetry, those histories can be made visible again. Check for the online reader's companion at http://publicfigures.site.wesleyan.edu.

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Public Figures

Public Figures

by Jena Osman
Public Figures
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Public Figures

Public Figures

by Jena Osman

Overview

An investigation of the gap between sight and site

Public Figures is an essay-poem with photographs and text that begins with a playful thought experiment: statues of people in public spaces have eyes, but what are they looking at? To answer that question, Jena Osman sets up a camera to track the gaze of a number of statues in Philadelphia—mostly 19th century military figures carrying weapons. How does their point of view differ from our own? And how does it compare, say, to the point of view of other watchful military figures, such as drone pilots? In this book, Osman combines the histories behind these statues with poetic narratives that ask us to think about our own relational positions, and how our own everyday gaze may be complicit with the gun-sights of war. Public Figures illustrates how history is transformed, and even erased, by monuments and other public records of events. Through poetry, those histories can be made visible again. Check for the online reader's companion at http://publicfigures.site.wesleyan.edu.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780819573117
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
Publication date: 09/26/2012
Series: Wesleyan Poetry Series
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 92
Product dimensions: 5.70(w) x 8.60(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

JENA OSMAN is the author of three previous books, including The Network, winner of the 2009 National Poetry Series Award, and The Character, winner of the 1998 Barnard College New Women Poets Prize. She teaches in the MFA Creative Writing Program at Temple University.

Table of Contents

Public Figures
Permission credits

What People are Saying About This

Rob McLennan

“….writers such as Osman are a rarity, adding to the mix her own queries on what research claims is already known. …. An architect of complex maps, Osman’s exploration of the multiple point-of-view in Public Figures becomes the central point, and one that is questioned throughout. Through Osman’s explorations, we are reminded of the dangers of reducing history to a series of icons, and forgetting to ask certain questions.”

Rosmarie Waldrop

“From public statues to photos of soldiers in Iraq, from physical object to recorded history, from what statues see to drone observation logs: Osman invites us, with George Oppen, to see the things we live among—and to know ourselves.”

From the Publisher

"From public statues to photos of soldiers in Iraq, from physical object to recorded history, from what statues see to drone observation logs: Osman invites us, with George Oppen, to see the things we live among—and to know ourselves."—Rosmarie Waldrop, author of Curves to the Apple

"Between the legs of the stone soldiers' continuous dérive, the dadaists imagined a monkey wrench, the surrealists a crystal cup, and Osman imagines you. You, the visitor, are the monument. You activate the idea. A true improvisatory device, Public Figures embodies the noblest kind of heat-seeking countermonument.""—Rachel Zolf, author of Neighbour Procedure

".writers such as Osman are a rarity, adding to the mix her own queries on what research claims is already known. . An architect of complex maps, Osman's exploration of the multiple point-of-view in Public Figures becomes the central point, and one that is questioned throughout. Through Osman's explorations, we are reminded of the dangers of reducing history to a series of icons, and forgetting to ask certain questions.""—Rob McLennan

"From public statues to photos of soldiers in Iraq, from physical object to recorded history, from what statues see to drone observation logs: Osman invites us, with George Oppen, to see the things we live among—and to know ourselves."—Rosmarie Waldrop, author of Curves to the Apple

Rachel Zolf

“Between the legs of the stone soldiers’ continuous dérive, the dadaists imagined a monkey wrench, the surrealists a crystal cup, and Osman imagines you. You, the visitor, are the monument. You activate the idea. A true improvisatory device, Public Figures embodies the noblest kind of heat-seeking countermonument.”

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