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Erasure

Constraint
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A poem created by redacting words from an existing text, leaving only selected fragments.

Detailed Definition
Erasure generates new poetry by selectively deleting portions of a source document, transforming it through absence; this constraint highlights the politics of visibility, memory, and censorship, turning found text into palimpsest, and aligns with conceptual practices where subtraction becomes creative act, revealing latent meanings through strategic omission.
Example
Example in poetry:
Erasure poetry: Tracy K. Smith’s “Declaration” redacting the U.S. Declaration of Independence; Tom Phillips’ “A Humument” painting over a novel; M. NourbeSe Philip’s “Zong!” erasing slave-ship documents; constraint poets erase newspapers into verse; blackout poetry using marker to isolate words; digital erasure generating new texts from deleted code.
Additional Notes
Erasure creates new texts by redacting existing ones. Used for critique (Smith’s “Declaration”) or recovery (Philip’s “Zong!”). Students must ethically engage source material. Erasure reveals hidden narratives and connects to palimpsest and corruption.
Also Known As
Redaction blackout poetry Oblivion
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