Performing Poetry

Performing Poetry
Body, Place and Rhythm in the Poetry Performance
Edited by Cornelia Gräbner and Arturo Casas
Rodopi, Amsterdam/New York, NY 2011. 293 pp.
ISBN: 978-90-420-3329-0 Paper
ISBN: 978-94-012-0025-7 E-Book
Online info here. 

Over the past decades, the poetry performance has developed into an increasingly popular, diverse, and complex art form. In theoretical and critical discourse, it is referred to as performance poetry, spoken word poetry, and polipoesía; some theorists argue that it is an independent poetic genre, others treat it as a contemporary manifestation of oral poetry or of the poetry recital. The essays collected in this volume take up the challenge that the poetry performance poses to literary theory. Coming from a variety of disciplines, including Literary Studies, Theater Studies, and Area Studies, contributors develop new approaches and analytical categories for the poetry performance. They draw on case studies from a variety of contexts and in several languages, including Brazilian Portuguese, Dutch, Catalan, English, French, Galician, and Spanish. Essays are organized in three sections, which focus on critical and theoretical approaches to the poetry performance, on the mediatic hybridity of this art form, and on the ways in which the poetry performance negotiates locatedness through engagements with space and place. The structure of the volume intersperses essays on theory and analysis with self-reflexive essays from performance poets on their own performance practice.

Cornelia Gräbner is Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at Lancaster University, U.K. She has published on performance poetry, committed scholarship, and resistance poetry. Her current research interests focus on contemporary European, Latin American, and North American literature. She works on performance poetry, committed writing, literature of the alterglobalisation movement, literary engagements with the dirty wars in Latin America, and representations of megacities in literature. She is a member of the international network Poetics of Resistance.

Arturo Casas is Senior Lecturer in Literary Theory and coordinator of the Centre for Research on Emergent Cultural Practices and Processes at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. His current fields of research are the debate on literary history, modern and postmodern aesthetic thought, contemporary essayistics, the Spanish Republican exile, and non-lyric poetry. His latest work, Resistance and Emancipation: Cultural and Poetic Practices, edited in collaboration with Ben Bollig, is forthcoming from Peter Lang. He is a member of the international network Poetics of Resistance.

Contents

Cornelia Gräbner and Arturo Casas: Introduction

Theorizing Performance Poetry: Critical and Analytical Views

Jonah Raskin: Allen Ginsberg, "Howl," and the 6 Gallery Poetry Performance

Gaston Franssen: Stage Fever and Text Anxiety: The Staging of Poeticity in Dutch Performance Poetry since the Sixties

Jeffrey Manoel Pijpers: Artimanha, the Precise Moment of Being: Performance and Carnival in the Poetry of Brazil's Nuvem Cigana

Cornelia Gräbner: "The Hurricane Doesn't Roar in Pentameters": Rhythmanalysis in Performed Poetry

Registers of Performance

Urayoán Noel: The Body's Territories: Performance Poetry in Contemporary Puerto Rico

María do Cebreiro Rábade Villar: Politics of Sound: Body, Emotion, and Sound in the Contemporary Galician Poetry Performance

Arturo Casas: Producing World and Remnant: Dialogue with Chus Pato

Anxo Abuín González: Poetry and Autofiction in the Performative "Field of Action": Angélica Liddell's Theater of Passion

Irina Garbatzky: Roberto Echavarren's Atlantic Casino and Oír no es ver: The "Neobarocker" Body in Performance

Roberto Echavarren: My Life and Performances

Locations of Performance

Deirdre Osborne: "Set in Stone": Lemn Sissay's and SuAndi's Landmark Poetics

SuAndi: Eartha Kitt Once Told Me

Mercè Picornell Belenguer: Heterotopical Routes through Barcelona: The Reshaping of Public Space in the "Galactic" Poetry of Jaume Sisa

Zoë Skoulding: Absent Cities: Text, Performance, and Heterotopia

Margalida Pons: New Loci in Contemporary Catalan Art and Poetry: Perejaume's Performance of/on the Rural

Conclusión(s) do Congreso

O I Congreso Internacional DINOLIPOE terminou e a organización agradece a congresistas e demais público a súa participación tan activa, perspicaz e enriquecedora que superou con creces as nosas expectivas. No primeiro día do congreso tamén se inaugurou a exposición de obxectos poéticos "Edición pirata" de Pepe Cáccamo, coa presenza do artista, na biblioteca da Facultade de Filoloxía e Tradución da Universidade de Vigo.

As contribucións e os debates, que se desenvolveron ao longo de dous intensos días de traballo, evidenciaron que a poesía contemporánea está intimamente relacionada coas principais problemáticas da nosa actualidade- sexan estas filosóficas, sociolóxicas, históricas, políticas, sistémicas, etc. 

Producíuse un acordo unánime no sentido de que non é doado establecer unha dicotomía entre o 'lírico' e o 'non lírico', posto que isto significaría recaír no binarismo occidental. Ao contrario, é necesario enfocar o 'non lírico' como unha grande variedade de discursos formais, estéticos, mediais, teóricos, ideolóxicos, etc., que subxace, directa ou indirectamente, á maioría da produción poética do momento. 

Outra conclusión, na que coincidiron practicamente todas as contribucións, é a falta de ferramentas teóricas metodolóxicas axeitadas e comunmente aceptadas para describir e interpretar a enorme heteroxeneidade de aspectos implicados na constitución do fenómeno poético actual. Esta circunstancia esixe unha reorientación das disciplinas da literatura comparada e da teoría da literatura, como quedou moi evidente através das contribucións de Daniel Chamberlain, Margalida Pons e Arturo Casas. 

Se o 'lírico' inclúe aspectos como o desexo dunha certa orde e un carácter que tende a marcar, en certa medida, unha diferenza, como salientou Gisele Wolkoff, o 'non lírico' talvez podería ser visto como unha abertura ou incluso ruptura: caracterizaríase pola transición, transformación, transcodificación e tradución, ou sexa, facendo fincapé neste momento (espacio-temporal, psicolóxico, tradutivo, etc.) do 'entre' ("in-between"). O 'non lírico' subverte as dependencias histórico-lineares ou teleolóxicas como a do 'orixinal'/ da 'orixe' ou de calquera tipo de autoridade, xa que o seu 'texto' consiste na propia dinámica da metamorfose, como insistiu Rui Torres. 

Moitos discursos 'non líricos' tamén transportan, e nisto insistiu unha importante parte das e dos conferenciantes, elementos de resistencia e de intervención en relación ao espazo público e sistémico, a partir dun ethos (ἦθος) definido a partir do seu contexto de produción e recepción imediato, tal como o ilustraron, por exemplo, a contribución de Issac Lourido ou a conferencia de clausura de Silvia Bermúdez. Así, a poesía, en toda a multiplicidade das súas posíbeis apariencias, tería que ser entendida, sobre todo, como unha forma de vida. Neste sentido, Daniel F. Chamberlain evocou unha "potential ethical nature of poetry", mentres que Cornelia Gräbner advertiu que, na reavaliación sistémica da poesía a partir dun impulso ético sería preferíbel "crear imaxinarios" para evitar o perigo da creación de novas ideoloxías (totalitarias).

En vindeiros posts habemos de completar, explicitar e diferenciar estes e outros dos moitos aspectos que foron propostos e debatidos no congreso e que no vindeiro ano se publicarán, de maneira máis elaborada e documentada, en formato libro.  

Aquí se poden atopar algunhas das noticias sobre o congreso que apareceron na prensa galega:
http://duvi.uvigo.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4722&Itemid=2
http://duvi.uvigo.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4704&Itemid=55
http://www.galiciahoxe.com/mare/gh/concepto-maleable/idEdicion-2011-04-14/idNoticia-659365/
http://www.culturagalega.org/noticia.php?id=18774&soportal=lg3
http://duvi.uvigo.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4482&Itemid=2

(Burghard Baltrusch)

Keynote Lectures (corrections)

Daniel F. Chamberlain 

 "Oral Poetry Inc. and Offence in Comparative Literary History"

(Tuesday, April 26)

In spite of recent efforts to appropriately accommodate oral poetic discourse into recent histories of literatures in European Languages, it has proven remarkably difficult to achieve. Oral storytelling is, more often than not, relegated to antiquity through comparative examinations of ballad structure or through the comparative analysis of  canciones de gesta in search of some “original” version. This paper proposes to approach the jesters’ oral storytelling phenomena from the perspective of phenomenological hermeneutics and examine what Hazard Adams’ The Offense of Poetry has described as the “carrying the word metaphorically from the body over into language itself” (96-7) and again from language over into the body. I will propose that this incorporation of “gesture in language,” (99) understood by Adams as the nucleus of poetry’s offense and by Marcel Jousse as the core of oral style, is what accounts for the stumbling block Literary History faces when it attempts to appropriately incorporate contemporary oral storytelling. I will offer a brief comparison of oral storytelling in Caribbean, Northern European, and South American contexts.
 

Bio-Bibliographical Note:
Professor of the Department of Spanish and Italian at Queen’s University. He offers courses on 20th-Century Spanish American narrative, Mexican oral narrative tradition, contemporary literary theory and narrative perspective, as well as courses in advanced Spanish language. He has published Narrative Perspective in Fiction: A Phenomenological Mediation of Reader, Text, and World with the University of Toronto Press along with numerous articles and chapters in Canadian and Mexican journals and editions that focus on Spanish American, European narrative.  Professor Chamberlain was an Erasmus, Mundus Masters Visiting Scholar to the European Union in 2009-2010 and he is a delegate for New England and Eastern Canada to the Modern Language Association of America’s Delegate Assembly from January 2011 through the close of the January 2014 MLA convention. Currently he is engaged in research on oral literary tradition and literary history. Professor Chamberlain has acted as President of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association, as Secretary, Treasurer and as Vice President of the Coordinating Committee for Literary History in European Languages of the International Comparative Literature Association. He also acts as a member of editorial boards of Canadian and Mexican journals dedicated to the fields of Hispanic and Comparative Literature.

Margalida Pons Jaume 

"De líricas sitiadas y sujetos translúcidos: 
la poesía experimental catalana"
(Tuesday, April 26)

La poesía experimental catalana reciente puede percibirse como un sitio a la concepción convencional de la lírica como expresión unívoca de un yo reconocible y capacitado para un conocimiento que se origina en el fenómeno. Partiendo de un marco cronológico que se extiende desde los años setenta hasta la actualidad —y, por tanto, históricamente, en el tránsito del discurso resistencialista al de la normalización— mi contribución pretende analizar los frentes a menudo interconectados en los que tiene lugar ese sitio: el de la intermedialidad (desde las más tenues relaciones ecfráticas hasta la explosión de la poesía visual), el del asalto al discurso (descompuesto, disuelto o contaminado por tipologías textuales diversas) y el de las plataformas físicas de producción-difusión del objeto poético (desde el uso significante de materiales habitualmente ajenos a la transmisión literaria hasta los mecanismos alternativos —artesanales, a veces— de distribución). De este conjunto hetereogéneo de prácticas deriva la constitución de un sujeto translúcido: un sujeto que ha dejado de ser el filtro que transmite con literalidad lo real pero que ha abandonado también la creencia en la autonomía opaca de la consciencia, convirtiéndose en una entidad caracterizada no sólo por su capacidad de reflejo y deformación, sino también por la indisolubilidad de ambos procesos, que se presentan de modo simultáneo.

Bio-Bibliographical Note:
Professor of Catalan Literature and Literary Theory at the Universitat de les Illes Balears. Among other books, she is author of  (Des)aïllats: narrativa contemporània i insularitat a les Illes Balears (2004, with Caterina Sureda) and Palma and Poesia insular de postguerra. Quatre veus dels anys cinquanta (1998), along with numerous chapters and articles in books and journals. Furthermore, she is co-editor of Poètiques de ruptura (2008) and Andreu Vidal, Obra poètica i altres escrits, (2007), as well as the editor of  Textualisme i subversió: formes i condicions de la narrativa experimental catalana (1970-1985) and Joan Alcover, Miquel Costa i Llobera i els llenguatges estètics del seu temps (2007). She has been visiting professor of the Department of Hispanic Studies (Catalan Studies section) at Brown University. From 2006 to 2009 she has been head of the research project Teoria i pràctica de la narrativa experimental catalana (1970-1985): anàlisi i estudi contextual» (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Plan Nacional de I+D+I, HUM2006-06108) and is currently head of the Research Group Literatura contemporània: estudis teòrics i comparatius sobre la textualitat (LiCETCT). Professor Pons is member of the editorial boards of Reduccions (2006 to the present) and Transfer. Journal of Contemporary Culture (Institut Ramon Llull).

Silvia Bermúdez:
"Amores que matan: 
Love me tender de Ana Romaní y la Ley Contra la Violencia de Género"
(Wednesday, April 27)

El propósito de esta conferencia es evaluar una de las propuestas poéticas gallegas contemporáneas que con mayor ahínco se ha dedicado a renovar, expandir y transformar modalidades y fronteras líricas para impactar la esfera pública: me refiero a la producción artística de Ana Romaní, y en particular a su poemario Love me tender. 24 pezas mínimas para una caixa de música (2005).  Me enfoco en este poemario por dos razones. Primero, porque debido a que los poemas de Love me tender se han difundido a través de una diversidad de medios—la red, leídos públicamente en performance, como libro distribuido gratuitamente por El Correo Gallego—los mismos nos permiten reflexionar sobre la poesía y medios de comunicación.  Segundo, porque al enfocarse en la grave lacra social que es la violencia doméstica, los poemas de Romaní piden ser leídos a contraluz de la Ley Orgánica de Medidas de Protección Integral Contra la Violencia de Género de 28 de diciembre de 2004.  Al proponer esta lectura a contraluz  reconozco que Love me tender, por sus características, no puede tener el mismo impacto social que el que busca alcanzar la Ley de Protección Integral Contra la Violencia de Género —y constan las limitaciones de la misma.  Sin embargo, argumento que ambos textos comparten objetivos políticos desde esferas discursivas específicamente distintas. Leídas a contraluz y desde sus inequívocas distinciones—uno es un texto legal-penal, el otro un texto literario—ambos nos ofrecen esferas desde las que trabajar para hacer frente a la violencia contra las mujeres. 

Bio-Bibliographical Note:
Professor of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Las dinámicas del deseo: subjetividad y lenguaje en la poesía española contemporánea (1997) and La esfinge de la escritura: la poesía ética de Blanca Varela (2005), as well as the co-editor of From Stateless Nations to Postnational Spain/De Naciones sin estado a la España postnacional (2002).  Her articles have appeared in critical collections in the U.S. and abroad and in Modern Language Notes, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Siglo XX/Twentieth Century, and Anuario de Estudios Literarios Galegos.   She recently served as Guest Co-Editor of the Special Issue “Spanish Popular Music Studies” for the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies (June 2009) and her third book, Rocking the Boat: The Rhythms of Immigration in Spanish Pop Music, 1984-2000, is forthcoming. Professor Bermudez’ areas of research and teaching are Contemporary Spanish and Galician Literatures and Cultures, Transatlantic Studies, and Peruvian poetry.  Her current work pays particular attention to how Spain’s new geopolitical position places this multilingual nation-state at the crossroads of the complex geographies and imagined communities that result from the circulation of peoples and cultures between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Keynote Lectures

Tuesday, April 26

Daniel F. Chamberlain: "Oral Poetry Inc. and Offence in Comparative Literary History"

Margalida Pons Jaume: "La poesía experimental catalana: marcos de justificación"

Wednesday, April 27 

Silvia Bermúdez: "Impactar la esfera pública: De la Ley Orgánica de Medidas de Protección Integral Contra la Violencia de Género a Love me tender de Ana Romaní"

Further information is available on http://dinolipoe.blogspot.com/p/conference-programme_28.html.

Keynote Speakers

Daniel F. Chamberlain, Professor of the Department of Spanish and Italian at Queen’s University. He offers courses on 20th-Century Spanish American narrative, Mexican oral narrative tradition, contemporary literary theory and narrative perspective, as well as courses in advanced Spanish language. He has published Narrative Perspective in Fiction: A Phenomenological Mediation of Reader, Text, and World with the University of Toronto Press along with numerous articles and chapters in Canadian and Mexican journals and editions that focus on Spanish American, European narrative.  Professor Chamberlain was an Erasmus, Mundus Masters Visiting Scholar to the European Union in 2009-2010 and he is a delegate for New England and Eastern Canada to the Modern Language Association of America’s Delegate Assembly from January 2011 through the close of the January 2014 MLA convention. Currently he is engaged in research on oral literary tradition and literary history. Professor Chamberlain has acted as President of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association, as Secretary, Treasurer and as Vice President of the Coordinating Committee for Literary History in European Languages of the International Comparative Literature Association. He also acts as a member of editorial boards of Canadian and Mexican journals dedicated to the fields of Hispanic and Comparative Literature.

Margalida Pons Jaume, Professor of Catalan Literature and Literary Theory at the Universitat de les Illes Balears. Among other books, she is author of  (Des)aïllats: narrativa contemporània i insularitat a les Illes Balears (2004, with Caterina Sureda) and Palma and Poesia insular de postguerra. Quatre veus dels anys cinquanta (1998), along with numerous chapters and articles in books and journals. Furthermore, she is co-editor of Poètiques de ruptura (2008) and Andreu Vidal, Obra poètica i altres escrits, (2007), as well as the editor of  Textualisme i subversió: formes i condicions de la narrativa experimental catalana (1970-1985) and Joan Alcover, Miquel Costa i Llobera i els llenguatges estètics del seu temps (2007). She has been visiting professor of the Department of Hispanic Studies (Catalan Studies section) at Brown University. From 2006 to 2009 she has been head of the research project Teoria i pràctica de la narrativa experimental catalana (1970-1985): anàlisi i estudi contextual» (Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia, Plan Nacional de I+D+I, HUM2006-06108) and is currently head of the Research Group Literatura contemporània: estudis teòrics i comparatius sobre la textualitat (LiCETCT). Professor Pons is member of the editorial boards of Reduccions (2006 to the present) and Transfer. Journal of Contemporary Culture (Institut Ramon Llull).

Silvia Bermúdez, Professor of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She is the author of Las dinámicas del deseo: subjetividad y lenguaje en la poesía española contemporánea (1997) and La esfinge de la escritura: la poesía ética de Blanca Varela (2005), as well as the co-editor of From Stateless Nations to Postnational Spain/De Naciones sin estado a la España postnacional (2002).  Her articles have appeared in critical collections in the U.S. and abroad and in Modern Language Notes, Revista de Estudios Hispánicos, Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies, Siglo XX/Twentieth Century, and Anuario de Estudios Literarios Galegos.   She recently served as Guest Co-Editor of the Special Issue “Spanish Popular Music Studies” for the Journal of Spanish Cultural Studies (June 2009) and her third book, Rocking the Boat: The Rhythms of Immigration in Spanish Pop Music, 1984-2000, is forthcoming. Professor Bermudez’ areas of research and teaching are Contemporary Spanish and Galician Literatures and Cultures, Transatlantic Studies, and Peruvian poetry.  Her current work pays particular attention to how Spain’s new geopolitical position places this multilingual nation-state at the crossroads of the complex geographies and imagined communities that result from the circulation of peoples and cultures between Africa, Europe, and the Americas.