| Summary: | For the latest generations of British poets known as the New Generation
(1994), Next Generation (2004), and Next Generation 2014, London is the place of
infinite possibilities that enhance mental versatility and emotional metamorphosis
testing, contesting and ultimately attesting identity by blurring the boundaries of
coherent individuality. This paper proposes an attempt to identify a gynocentric
aesthetic orientation originating in urban selfhood by scrutinising several
representative poems by Moniza Alvi, Patience Agbabi and Kate Tempest who
advance alternative portrayals of the megalopolis in life stories of a generic homo
urbanus (dis)located in London. The assimilation of the mega-city during the process
of selfing forges a specific ethos interpreted through a variety of megalopolitan
experiences among which one can distinguish Londonicity (the ability to conform to
the metropolitan code), ventured Londonification (the endeavour to conquer the huge
conurbation) and Londonimity (urban inadequacy, a tendency to display selfeffacement). However, these poets’ urban psychogeography converges into a
particular state of mind nurtured by their imaginary experience of London as assumed
destiny, a way to shape and re-shape personal cultural codes, providing solid
arguments in favour of a gynopoetics of the metropolis forged by the discursive
strategies employed in the female-authored poetic texts.
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