Abstract
Wolfgang Wicht, "The Swords of Elves: Denise Riley: Subjectivity, Aporia
The fusion of formal innovation with the deconstructive investigation of subjectivity is
crucial in Denise Riley's writings. Whilst radically putting the authentic self under
question, Riley paradoxically aims at re-affirming the subject as the locus of
creativity, power and resistance. This difference establishes a state of aporia, a
territory of 'no passage' between skepticism and power, subjection and subjective
self-assertion, despair and courage. For Riley, however, it is exactly this aporetic
ambiguity that is the prerequisite of authorial creativity.