Volume 5 - Issue 14 (2026-05-20)

Toward a Quantum Poetics: Entanglement, Superposition, and Observer Effect in the Poetry of Anne Carson

Researcher: Eman Mahdi Abdalkreem

College of Education for Women- Tikrit - Iraq

This study explores the applicability of quantum theory as a conceptual and analytical framework for interpreting contemporary poetry, with a specific focus on the work of Anne Carson. It investigates how three foundational principles of quantum mechanics entanglement, superposition, and the observer effect can be employed to reinterpret the dynamics of poetic meaning. The study is grounded in the assumption that poetic language does not function as a fixed system of representation but rather as a dynamic and relational structure that continuously generates meaning through interaction. Within this framework, entanglement is understood as the structural and semantic interconnectedness of textual elements, where meaning arises not in isolation but through relational dependencies across images, voices, and narrative fragments. Superposition is used to describe the coexistence of multiple potential meanings within a single poetic structure, where interpretation remains open, layered, and non-exclusive until it is actualized through reading. The observer effect, in turn, highlights the active role of the reader in shaping and stabilizing meaning, suggesting that interpretation is not external to the text but constitutive of it.

Through a qualitative methodology based on close reading and theoretical analysis, the study demonstrates that Carson’s poetry exhibits patterns of meaning-making that resonate strongly with quantum principles. Her poetic structures often resist linear coherence and instead operate through fragmentation, simultaneity, and shifting interpretive possibilities. This allows the text to function as a dynamic field of potential meanings rather than a singular, determinate message.

 Ultimately, the study proposes that quantum theory offers more than a metaphorical parallel to literary analysis; it provides a structured epistemological model for understanding how meaning is produced, suspended, and transformed in poetic discourse. In doing so, it contributes to the development of “quantum poetics” as an emerging interdisciplinary approach that redefines the relationship between text, reader, and meaning in contemporary literature.