“To Be a Yardstick”: Individual Rebellion and Social Conformity in Cathy Park Hong’s Engine Empire

Abstract

[Abstract] This Master’s thesis engages in a multidisciplinary humanistic analysis of Cathy Park Hong’s triptych Engine Empire. Said analysis is divided into three parts, each one corresponding to one of the poem’s sections. Following Sigmund Freud’s anthropological ideas on the origin and development of civilization, every chapter deals with the struggles of individuals who refuse to abide by the social norms imposed on them. Freud’s theory is complemented with the works of Michel Foucault regarding the means by which the ruling power exerts control over its subjects. Together with the analysis of the poem proper, the aim of this paper is to show how a literary work, namely a work of poetry, can elicit critical thinking.