Speech Acts

Poetry. At first glance, Laura McCullough's collection, SPEECH ACTS—borrowing its title from the branch of linguistics interested in the nature and intention of artifacts of language and their effect in communication—may seem overly sensational, the surface subject matter at times blatantly sexual, but on closer interrogation, McCullough is attempting to strip away the obfuscations of language(s), the barriers between genders, the difficulties of intimacy and reveal the relational and power balances between people. Behind the sometimes erotically charged poems in SPEECH ACTS is a real concern for linguistics, the philosophy of, the tools of. Beneath the bawdy, glittering surface and language play in Speech Acts is McCullough's desire to "kiss the mouth of another/ language," to go beyond the veils that separate people, nations, perhaps this world from whatever comes after. These poems are not just about love; they grieve over the impossibility of ever fully comprehending anything at all, let alone another human being.