Poetry Performed: The Problem of Public Reading

Today, public readings have become a vital part of any form of literary life. Orality is the keyword of contemporary writing. Yet do we know what actually happens when a poetic text is read out loud? How are signs on a page transformed into a stage performance? What does it mean to move from a text meant for the eye alone to sounds and images presented in front of a living and actively participating audience?

Poetry Performed: The Problem of Public Reading answers these questions, but not in abstract or general terms. Instead, author Jan Baetens examines how authors themselves live this experience of reading out loud and how they write about it in their works. Taking its departure from Balzac, this book revisits a wide range of masterpieces of nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature, including works by Marcel Proust and James Joyce, and contains a series of close readings of contemporary artists (poets, performers, directors, comics authors) who try to invent new forms of public reading.

Author: Jan Baetens
Publisher: Univ of Louisiana at Lafayette
Published: 10/01/2021
Pages: 154
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.50lbs
ISBN13: 9781946160782
ISBN10: 1946160784
BISAC Categories:
- Literary Criticism | Poetry