Editing Kathy Acker (section)

==Literary overview==
Acker was associated with the New York [[punk subculture|punk]] movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The punk aesthetic influenced her literary style.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Kraus|first1=Chris|title=After Kathy Acker|date=2017|publisher=MIT Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=9781635900064|url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/after-kathy-acker|access-date=August 12, 2017}}</ref> In the 1970s, before the term "[[postmodernism]]" was popular, Acker began writing her books. These books contain features that would eventually be considered postmodernist work.<ref>McCaffery, Larry, and Kathy Acker. "An Interview with Kathy Acker", ''Mississippi Review'', volume 20, number 1/2, 1991, pages 83–97, jstor.org/stable/20134512.</ref> Her controversial body of work borrows heavily from the experimental styles of [[William S. Burroughs]] and [[Marguerite Duras]], with critics often comparing her writing to that of [[Alain Robbe-Grillet]] and [[Jean Genet]]. Critics have noticed links to [[Gertrude Stein]] and photographers [[Cindy Sherman]] and [[Sherrie Levine]]. She was influenced by the [[Black Mountain School]] poets, [[William S. Burroughs]], [[David Antin]], [[Carolee Schneeman]], [[Eleanor Antin]], French [[critical theory]], syncretistic [[mysticism]], and [[pornography]],<ref name="NYU Fales Library">{{cite web|title=Guide to the Kathy Acker Notebooks, 1968–1974|url=http://dlib.nyu.edu/findingaids/html/fales/acker/bioghist.html|website=Fales Library and Special Collections|publisher=New York University|access-date=August 12, 2017}}</ref> as well as [[Classic book|classic literature]].

Acker's novels exhibit a fascination with, and an indebtedness to, [[Tattoo|tattoos]].<ref>{{cite news|last=Staff|title=Brief in English: Kathy Acker in Helsinki|url=http://ylioppilaslehti.fi/1996/10/brief-in-english-56|work=[[Ylioppilaslehti]] (student magazine)|publisher=[[University of Helsinki]]|location=Helsinki, Finland|date=October 1996}}</ref> She dedicated ''Empire of the Senseless'' to her tattooist. Her work often dealt with other themes of [[body modification]] as well, such as [[bodybuilding]]. She would outline this in such works as the 1993 essay ''[https://www.yvonnebuchheim.com/uploads/1/7/0/8/17088324/acker-kathy_the_language_of_the_body.pdf Against Ordinary Language: The Language of the Body.]''

Acker published her first book, ''Politics'', in 1972. Although the collection of poems and essays did not garner much critical or public attention, it did establish her reputation within the New York punk scene. In 1973, she published her first novel (under the pseudonym '''Black Tarantula'''), ''The Childlike Life of the Black Tarantula: Some Lives of Murderesses''. The following year, she published her second novel, ''I Dreamt I Was a Nymphomaniac: Imagining''. Both works are reprinted in ''Portrait of an Eye''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Acker|first1=Kathy|title=Portrait of an Eye: Three Novels|date=1997|publisher=Grove Press|location=New York|isbn=0802135439|url=https://archive.org/details/portraitofeyethr00acke|access-date=January 12, 2018}}</ref>

In 1979, she received popular attention after winning a [[Pushcart Prize]] for her short story "New York City in 1979." She did not receive critical attention, however, until publishing ''Great Expectations'' in 1982. The opening of ''Great Expectations'' is an obvious re-writing of [[Great Expectations|Charles Dickens's work of the same name]]. It features her usual subject matter, including a semi-autobiographical account of her mother's suicide and the appropriation of several other texts, including [[Pierre Guyotat]]'s violent and sexually explicit "[[Eden, Eden, Eden|''Eden Eden Eden'']]." That same year, Acker published a [[chapbook]], entitled ''Hello, I'm [[Erica Jong]]''.<ref name="auto"/> She appropriated from a number of influential writers. These writers include [[Charles Dickens]], [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]], [[John Keats]], [[William Faulkner]], [[James Joyce]], [[T. S. Eliot]], the [[Brontë sisters]], the [[Marquis de Sade]], [[Dante Alighieri]], [[Georges Bataille]], and [[Arthur Rimbaud]].<ref>Hawkins, Susan E. "All in the Family: Kathy Acker's 'Blood and Guts in High School.'" Contemporary Literature, volume 45, number 4, 2004, pages 637–58, jstor.org/stable/3593544</ref>

Acker wrote the script for the 1983 film ''[[Variety (1983 film)|Variety]]''.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Stevenson|first=Jack|title=Haunted Cinema: Movie Theatres of the Dead|journal=[[Bright Lights Film Journal]]|volume=70|date=October 31, 2010|url=http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/70/70stevenson.php|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130119041932/http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/70/70stevenson.php|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 19, 2013}}</ref> Acker wrote a text on the photographer [[Marcus Leatherdale]] that was published in 1983, in an art catalogue for the Molotov Gallery in [[Vienna]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Acker|first1=Kathy|last2=Leatherdale|first2=Marcus|author-link2= Marcus Leatherdale|title=Marcus Leatherdale: His photographs – a book in a series on people and years|publisher=Molotov|location=Vienna, Austria|year=1983|oclc=719286533|isbn=9783950370317}}</ref>

Notwithstanding the increased recognition she garnered for ''Great Expectations'', ''[[Blood and Guts in High School]]'' is often considered Acker's breakthrough work. She first began composing the book in 1973 while living in [[Solana Beach, California|Solana Beach]], writing and drawing fragments in notebooks before compiling the manuscript in 1979.<ref name=":2" /> Published in 1984, it is one of her most extreme explorations of sexuality and violence, critiquing the intersections of patriarchal [[capitalism]], sexual oppression, systemic power dynamics and fragmented identity. Following a heavily surreal and frequently disrupted narrative, the book is written as a [[Metafiction|metafictional]] [[collage novel]], variously incorporating letters, poems, translations, drama scenes, [[Dream vision|dream visions]], and pornographic drawings. Borrowing from, among other texts, [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'', ''Blood and Guts'' details the grotesque childhood experiences of Janey Smith, a chronically sex-addicted and [[pelvic inflammatory disease]]-ridden young urbanite who is infatuated with a supposed father who sells her into slavery and prostitution. In its original publications by [[Picador (imprint)|Picador]] and [[Grove Press]], the final two chapters were accidentally reversed from Acker's intended order; the mistake was corrected in the 2017 re-publication of the novel.<ref name=":2" /> Many critics initially criticized the book for the transgressive depictions of the abuse of women, and both Germany and South Africa banned it completely. Acker later published the German court judgement against ''[[Blood and Guts in High School]]'' in ''[https://www.amazon.com/Hannibal-Lecter-Father-Native-Agents/dp/0936756683 Hannibal Lecter, My Father]''. The book eventually amassed a posthumous [[cult following]] despite its highly controversial nature, and featured in Peter Boxall's ''[[1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Boxall |first=Peter |title=1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die |date=2012-01-10 |publisher=Octopus |isbn=9781844037193 |edition=Updated}}</ref>

After a series of failed contracts to publish ''[[Blood and Guts in High School]]'', Acker made her British literary debut in 1984 when [[Picador (imprint)|Picador]] published the novel, followed by publication in New York by [[Grove Press]].<ref name=":2" /> That same year, she was signed by the aforementioned Grove Press, one of the legendary independent publishers committed to controversial and avant-garde writing; she was one of the last writers taken on by [[Barney Rosset]] before the end of his tenure there. Most of her work was published by them, including re-issues of important earlier work. She wrote for several magazines and [[anthology|anthologies]], including the periodicals ''[[RE/Search]]'', ''[[Angel Exhaust]]'', ''[[monochrom]]'' and ''Rapid Eye''. As she neared the end of her life, her work was more well-received by the conventional press; for example, ''[[The Guardian]]'' published a number of her essays, interviews, and articles, among them was an interview with the [[Spice Girls]].<ref name="NYU Fales Library"/> ''In Memoriam to Identity'' draws attention to popular analyses of [[Rimbaud]]'s life and ''[[The Sound and the Fury]]'', constructing or revealing social and literary identity. Although known in the [[literary]] world for creating a whole new style of [[Écriture féminine|feminist prose]] and for her [[Transgressional fiction|transgressive fiction]], she was also a [[punk ideology|punk]] and feminist icon for her devoted portrayals of alternative [[subculture]]s, strong-willed women, and violence.<ref name="auto"/>

Acker published ''Empire of the Senseless'' in 1988, and considered it a turning point in her writing. While she still borrows from other texts, including [[Mark Twain]]'s ''[[The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'', the appropriation is less obvious. However, one of Acker's more controversial appropriations is from [[William Gibson]]'s 1984 text, ''[[Neuromancer]]'', in which Acker equates code with the female body and its [[Militarism|militaristic]] implications. In 1988, she published ''Literal Madness: Three Novels'', which included three previously-published works: ''Florida'' deconstructs and reduces [[John Huston]]'s 1948 [[film noir]] ''[[Key Largo (film)|Key Largo]]'' into its base sexual politics, ''Kathy Goes to Haiti'' details a young woman's relationship and sexual exploits while on vacation, and ''My Death My Life by [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]]'' provides a fictional ''autobiography'' of the Italian filmmaker in which he solves his own murder.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Acker |first=Kathy |title=Literal Madness: Three Novels |date=1988 |publisher=Grove Press |isbn=978-0-8021-3156-0 |location=New York, NY}}</ref>

Between 1990 and 1993, she published four more books: ''In Memoriam to Identity'' (1990); ''Hannibal Lecter, My Father'' (1991); ''Portrait of an Eye: Three Novels'' (1992), also composed of already-published works; and ''My Mother: Demonology'' (1992). Her collection, ''Portrait of an Eye'', was championed by publisher [[Fred Jordan (publisher)|Fred Jordan]], who had discovered her work at Grove Press before moving to [[Pantheon Books|Pantheon]] and sent an early copy of the book to William Burroughs in 1991.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Colby |first=Georgina |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3366/j.ctt1g0528x |title=Kathy Acker: Writing the Impossible |date=2016 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-0-7486-8350-5 |jstor=10.3366/j.ctt1g0528x }}</ref> Her last novel, ''Pussy, King of the Pirates'', was published in 1996,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-8021-1578-2|title=Fiction Book Review: Pussy, King of the Pirates|website=www.publishersweekly.com|access-date=2020-01-15}}</ref> which she, [[Rico Bell]], and the rest of rock band [[Mekons|the Mekons]] also reworked into an [[operetta]], which they performed at the [[Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago]], in 1997.<ref>{{cite news| date=September 18, 1997| title=Pussy, King of the Pirates| author=Helbig, Jack| newspaper=[[Chicago Reader]]| url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/pussy-king-of-the-pirates/Content?oid=894417| access-date=2020-05-13}}</ref>

In 2007, Amandla Publishing re-published Acker's articles that she wrote for the ''[[New Statesman]]'' from 1989 to 1991.<ref name="Amandla">{{cite web|title=Amandla Publishing: Kathy Acker|url=http://amandlapress.com/acker.html|publisher=Amandla|access-date=October 12, 2017}}</ref>  [[Grove Press]] published two unpublished early [[Novella|novellas]] in the volume ''Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective and The Burning Bombing of America'', and a collection of selected work, ''Essential Acker'', edited by [[Amy Scholder]] and [[Dennis Cooper]] in 2002.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Acker|first1=Kathy|title=Rip-Off Red, Girl Detective and The Burning Bombing of America|date=2002|publisher=Grove Press|location=New York|isbn=0802139205|url=https://archive.org/details/ripoffredgirldet00acke|access-date=January 12, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Acker|first1=Kathy|title=Essential Acker|date=2002|publisher=Grove Press|location=New York|isbn=0802139213|url=https://groveatlantic.com/book/essential-acker|access-date=January 12, 2018}}</ref>

Three volumes of her non-fiction have been published and republished since her death. In 2002, [[New York University]] staged ''Discipline and Anarchy'', a retrospective exhibition of her works,<ref>{{cite news|title=Press release – Discipline and Anarchy: The Works of Kathy Acker|work=[[Washington Square News|NYU News]] (student newspaper)|publisher=[[New York University]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100301064738/http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/549|archive-date=March 1, 2010|url=http://www.nyu.edu/public.affairs/releases/detail/549|date=October 31, 2002}}</ref> while in 2008, London's [[Institute of Contemporary Arts]] screened an evening of films influenced by Acker.<ref>{{cite news|last=Stevens|first=Andrew|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/dec/28/lookingbackatkathyacker|location=London, UK|work=[[The Guardian]]|title=Looking back at Kathy Acker|date=December 28, 2007}}</ref>