Anne Carson and the Solway Hoaxes

Ian Rae, The University of Western Ontario - King's University College

Abstract

This essay examines the reception of Anne Carson's work by her most virulent critic, David Solway, and shows how factual errors in Solway's polemics undermine his own poetic practice and critical discourse. Solway's errors have prompted the speculation that his attack on Carson is a hoax on par with his earlier Karavis hoax, and this possibility is explored in detail before it is rejected. The conclusion counters Solway's accusation that Carson is a literary "fraud" who has risen to prominence because of a "conspiracy" of promoters in the publishing industry by investigating Solway's own connections within the publishing world and demonstrating that the attack on Carson functions as a platform for Solway's self- and group-promotions.