When words have no equals: a response to Lisa Robertson's Thresholds: a prosody of citizenship

Abstract

How far, then, is it possible to move beyond the confines of official languages, to find one’s voice? Is it possible to begin again, to reinvent oneself, and therefore change interactions with others, through language? Lisa Robertson certainly thinks so. Thresholds is a plural, open text. Robertson’s erudition is such that she can pick her way through the minefields of co-option to convincingly break through to provide a solidly reasoned schema for co-operation between subjects. Robertson has a singular way of compressing language in order to expand our perception of what words can mean and do. Her phrasing and syntax is distinctive and can be complex.