Abstract

Masochism serves as a key element of Kathy Acker’s poetics, spanning from her early works to her final novels. In ›Great Expectations‹ (1982), Acker’s transtextual poetics intricately weaves masochism into her literary fabric. Her methodological ›plagiarism‹ serves as the core of her poetic program, engaging with masochistic themes through a neo-avant-garde lens. This paper examines how Acker’s textual interventions critically dissect canonical notions of masochistic theory, particularly in relation to gender dynamics and socio-political dimensions. By deconstructing and recontextualizing literary intertexts, Acker exposes the ideological underpinnings of masochistic typologies and challenges its aestheticization and idealization, ultimately reshaping our understanding of poetic masochism.