CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

Article Title

Investigative Spaces in the Poetry of Pierre Reverdy, Jules Supervielle, and Henri Michaux

Authors

Hugo Azérad, Magdalene College, Cambridge

Abstract

In his paper, "Investigative Spaces in the Poetry of Pierre Reverdy, Jules Supervielle, and Henri Michaux," Hugo Azérad revisits the notion of poetic space and tries to re-examine it in a novel light. In so doing, Azérad re-adapts phenomenology, which tells us that space outreaches itself in the shape of an horizon of perception. But can we posit a space which would progressively do away with perceiver and perceived alike, a space which poetry (art?) can help establish? Azérad attempts to approach poetic space as if it were a utopian place of encounter, different from the physical or psychological dimensions found usually in studies offered on the subject. Poetic space would be a threshold where the poet, the poem, and reality annihilate themselves by using images which are Benjaminian in nature, in order to create/prepare -- i.e., poème préparé similar to Cage's piano préparé -- the ground for an experience/encounter to happen. Azérad exemplifies his notions about poetic space with texts by Supervielle, Reverdy, Michaux, Mondrian, and Malevich, and decomposes the categories of subject-object, inside-outside for the sake of a "not yet" created dimension: a vital terrain of elective experience.

Recommended Citation

Azérad, Hugo. "Investigative Spaces in the Poetry of Pierre Reverdy, Jules Supervielle, and Henri Michaux." CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 4.3 (2002): <http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1166>

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