Here, I propose that the cross-out ( like so), in its simultaneous attempt to erase and preserve a word, models a form of elegy that does justice to the traumatic past while enabling narrative progression. It is a mode of repair rather than despair. Virginia Woolf, with her penchant for the cross-out, sets an example for two contemporary elegists: poet-essayist Anne Carson and novelist-critic Namwali Serpell. All three look to the cross-out as an alternative to conventionally male forms of elegy...