Innovative Poetic Practice in French in the 21st Century
Starts:
Finishes:
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE MAINLY IN FRENCH]
Published in the mid-1990s by Olivier Cadiot and Pierre Alferi, the Revue de Littérature Générale – whose introductory essay, « La mécanique lyrique », can be regarded as a form of manifesto – represents a symbolical turning point in the French poetic landscape. For over a quarter of a century, poetic practitioners have been partly inspired by it, before taking flight in a multitude of unexpected directions. Some describe this poetry as experimental, others as radical or as innovative; attempts to define it are the subject of discussions, and a consensus is yet to come.
The notion of “post-poésie” – invented by theorist and innovative poet Jean-Marie Gleize – remains to be elucidated. Is it a type of poetry that is not easily identifiable as such, having abandoned past definitions, and lending itself to a game of synergies with other art forms? Or is it something else, which no longer has anything in common with poetry (« pour un certain nombre des écrivains qui produisent ces objets, la référence à la poésie n’est plus nécessaire », Gleize, Sorties, p. 42) ?
Moreover, and beyond the influences of Gleize, Cadiot and Alferi, what do French-language poetic practices look like today? Who are the new innovative poets, the new theorists? What is happening in France and outside France?
Contact name:
Nathalie Wourm