Issue I : December 2006
With lots of poetry & essays by Simon DeDeo (towards an anarchist poetics), Thomas Basbøll (On the Art of Metaphysical Composition) and Andy Gricevich (Vulnerablism: Notes on Poetry and Ethics).
12/9/06
12/8/06
12/7/06
INCENDIARY DEVICES
Discourses of the Other
by Louis Armand
The question of signifying materiality remains an overwhelming problem in contemporary discussions of discourse and textuality. Focusing upon the work of key twentieth century thinkers, including Jacques Lacan, Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida, Incendiary Devices opens up new critical horizons in the dialogue between psychoanalysis, ontology and textual theory, and offers a framework for re-evaluating the status of "structure" as the basic paradigm for understanding subjectivity, meaning and the technics of literacy.
"Armand's critique of Lacan provides a post-Heideggerean thesis that remains alert to important limitations in Heidegger's thinking, limitations that have been exposed with great subtlety by Derrida … Unlike Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy, who in their ground-breaking The Title of the Letter had concluded in the early seventies that Lacan's concepts could not make sense in a Heideggerean perspective, Armand shows that they do."
--Jean-Michel Rabaté, author of Jacques Lacan (Palgrave)
READ AN EXCERPT
ISBN 80-246-1024-8 (paperback), 124pp
Published: 2006
Publisher: Karolinum/Charles University Press
by Louis ArmandThe question of signifying materiality remains an overwhelming problem in contemporary discussions of discourse and textuality. Focusing upon the work of key twentieth century thinkers, including Jacques Lacan, Martin Heidegger and Jacques Derrida, Incendiary Devices opens up new critical horizons in the dialogue between psychoanalysis, ontology and textual theory, and offers a framework for re-evaluating the status of "structure" as the basic paradigm for understanding subjectivity, meaning and the technics of literacy.
"Armand's critique of Lacan provides a post-Heideggerean thesis that remains alert to important limitations in Heidegger's thinking, limitations that have been exposed with great subtlety by Derrida … Unlike Lacoue-Labarthe and Nancy, who in their ground-breaking The Title of the Letter had concluded in the early seventies that Lacan's concepts could not make sense in a Heideggerean perspective, Armand shows that they do."
--Jean-Michel Rabaté, author of Jacques Lacan (Palgrave)
READ AN EXCERPT
ISBN 80-246-1024-8 (paperback), 124pp
Published: 2006
Publisher: Karolinum/Charles University Press
12/6/06
Green Integer Poet Biographies
Green Integer has begun a listing of over 1,500 international poet biographies. Several dozen are already available on our website (www.greeninteger.com), and we have also listed those poets for whom we are planning biographies in the near future. If you wish to contribute a biography (in the same format, including complete listings of books of poetry, city, publisher and publication date), we will be happy to work with you to post your contributions.
Douglas Messerli
Douglas Messerli
12/5/06
The Prime Directive
The Prime Directive is a new digital poetic work by Swedish poet and artist Johannes Heldén, presented by the Danish website AfsnitP.
The Prime Directive is Johannes Heldén's largest online piece, uniting his talents within literature, sound art, and drawing. It is released simultaneously in a Swedish and an English version.
A fragment which might originate from the artist's harddisk, reads:
"The Prime Directive is [two non-linear landscape levels] two prisoners in a linear geography. For each "on(mouseOver)" and "on(release)" a new rift in time will open, a new possibility for something to slip through. A text, a variable, a prime number. Or if you so desire; The Prime Directive is [an instance of] a machine, there to construct a context where there is none, i.e. in what we know as the real world. Two escape lines trapped in bureaucracy, but each line is inhabited by myriads of tiny ones [automatons, machines] and what these little [cute] ones does when you click the button, or when you don't pay attention, or when you sleep(...)"
The work is the first in a series of new Nordic visual poetry called Ord i øjet (Words in the Eye) on the Afsnit P website. The series is curated by Christian Yde Frostholm and Karen Wagner.
The Prime Directive is Johannes Heldén's largest online piece, uniting his talents within literature, sound art, and drawing. It is released simultaneously in a Swedish and an English version.
A fragment which might originate from the artist's harddisk, reads:
"The Prime Directive is [two non-linear landscape levels] two prisoners in a linear geography. For each "on(mouseOver)" and "on(release)" a new rift in time will open, a new possibility for something to slip through. A text, a variable, a prime number. Or if you so desire; The Prime Directive is [an instance of] a machine, there to construct a context where there is none, i.e. in what we know as the real world. Two escape lines trapped in bureaucracy, but each line is inhabited by myriads of tiny ones [automatons, machines] and what these little [cute] ones does when you click the button, or when you don't pay attention, or when you sleep(...)"
The work is the first in a series of new Nordic visual poetry called Ord i øjet (Words in the Eye) on the Afsnit P website. The series is curated by Christian Yde Frostholm and Karen Wagner.
12/4/06
Ctrl-C + Crtl-V ("a formula of subversion"?)
I was invited to make one of the two "writer's comments" in the Literary Council of Finland's expert seminar on "Writers' Copyright". I thought what I had to say would be of some interest to the readers of this blog: Finnish, and English at my site & at nypoesi.net.
12/3/06
Blogging as the sharing of knowledge
"The deception of Poets will mark our era, as it has already marked history. On the other hand Poets will show future generations the steadiness of hope, its strength. By paraphrasing Rorty, humanity will have to accept in front of the gravity of nuclear bombs the need to develop our relationships on human values, and to recognize those who are better suited to lead governments and institutions. With the proliferation of poetry blogs, the poetic message should reach an umpteenth public, poetry is filling the medium and instead of "massaging", it disrupts."
Anny Ballardini on poetry blogs >>
Anny Ballardini on poetry blogs >>
12/1/06
Books and the future of publishing
Special report on books and the future of publishing on Forbes.com
"The Internet is fueling literacy. Giving books away online increases off-line readership. New forms of expression--wikis, networked books--are blossoming in a digital hothouse."
Video: Googling Dickens
"The Internet is fueling literacy. Giving books away online increases off-line readership. New forms of expression--wikis, networked books--are blossoming in a digital hothouse."
Video: Googling Dickens
Symposium on Translation at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa
An International Symposium at the University of Hawaii at Manoa
Translation: Theory, Practice, Trope
January 22nd-23rd 2007
Organizers:
Cristina Bacchilega, Susan Schultz, S. Shankar
Translation is a central fact of human communication. It is a practical tool of communication as well as a powerful metaphor for it. Whether we speak of cultures or nations, of peoples or civilizations, no cross-linguistic conversation is possible without translation. Accordingly, the possibility of translation has over the ages enabled a rich exchange of ideas in linguistics, religion, philosophy, economics, literature, politics, and other spheres of human activity. At the same time, translation is often violence. The impossibility of translation "can the original ever be conveyed in translation without irreparable loss? is translation miscommunication rather than communication?" has also made it the object of anxious scrutiny in these very spheres.
Translation: Theory, Practice, Trope, an international two-day symposium at UH-Manoa, proposes to make a beginning in exploring the significance of translation within the contemporary world in a manner that is inter-disciplinary, practical as well as theoretical, and attentive to our location in the Pacific.
Guest Speakers include: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia University), Hosam Aboul-Ela (University of Houston), Noelani Arista (Brandeis University), Yunte Huang (UCSB), Donatella Izzo (Universita Orientale degli Studi di Napoli, Italy).
Speakers from UHM include: Arindam Chakraborty (Philosophy), Joel Cohn (EALL), Puakea Nogelmeier (HIPLL), Reina Whaitiri (English), and John Zuern (English).
The symposium has a three-part structure "two workshops, two-and-a-half hours long, during the afternoons of Janurary 22nd and 23rd and a concluding roundtable, open to the public, on January 23rd evening." The workshops, covering a range of topics relating to translation from a variety of cultural contexts, will begin with brief presentations by the speakers, followed by an open discussion amongst gathered participants.
The organizers invite scholars (faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students) interested in translation and ready to commit to attending the three events to write to them with a brief paragraph indicating desire to participate and the nature of their interest in translation. Please write to:
translidat@yahoo.com by Dec 4th 2006.
Made possible with the generous support of: Center for South Asian Studies-UH, College of LLL-UH, English Department-UH, Diversity and Equity Initiative, International Cultural Studies Program, Tinfish Press, UH-EH Conference Program, and University Research Council.
Translation: Theory, Practice, Trope
January 22nd-23rd 2007
Organizers:
Cristina Bacchilega, Susan Schultz, S. Shankar
Translation is a central fact of human communication. It is a practical tool of communication as well as a powerful metaphor for it. Whether we speak of cultures or nations, of peoples or civilizations, no cross-linguistic conversation is possible without translation. Accordingly, the possibility of translation has over the ages enabled a rich exchange of ideas in linguistics, religion, philosophy, economics, literature, politics, and other spheres of human activity. At the same time, translation is often violence. The impossibility of translation "can the original ever be conveyed in translation without irreparable loss? is translation miscommunication rather than communication?" has also made it the object of anxious scrutiny in these very spheres.
Translation: Theory, Practice, Trope, an international two-day symposium at UH-Manoa, proposes to make a beginning in exploring the significance of translation within the contemporary world in a manner that is inter-disciplinary, practical as well as theoretical, and attentive to our location in the Pacific.
Guest Speakers include: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (Columbia University), Hosam Aboul-Ela (University of Houston), Noelani Arista (Brandeis University), Yunte Huang (UCSB), Donatella Izzo (Universita Orientale degli Studi di Napoli, Italy).
Speakers from UHM include: Arindam Chakraborty (Philosophy), Joel Cohn (EALL), Puakea Nogelmeier (HIPLL), Reina Whaitiri (English), and John Zuern (English).
The symposium has a three-part structure "two workshops, two-and-a-half hours long, during the afternoons of Janurary 22nd and 23rd and a concluding roundtable, open to the public, on January 23rd evening." The workshops, covering a range of topics relating to translation from a variety of cultural contexts, will begin with brief presentations by the speakers, followed by an open discussion amongst gathered participants.
The organizers invite scholars (faculty, graduate students and undergraduate students) interested in translation and ready to commit to attending the three events to write to them with a brief paragraph indicating desire to participate and the nature of their interest in translation. Please write to:
translidat@yahoo.com by Dec 4th 2006.
Made possible with the generous support of: Center for South Asian Studies-UH, College of LLL-UH, English Department-UH, Diversity and Equity Initiative, International Cultural Studies Program, Tinfish Press, UH-EH Conference Program, and University Research Council.
Language in Exile
Nguyen Duy, an establishment poet in Vietnam, made this observation: “Vietnamese overseas cannot contribute to Vietnamese literature because the language they’re using is becoming less pure, less like the language being spoken and written inside Vietnam.” What struck this reader was the definitive “cannot,” spoken like a true totalitarian. Further, Nguyen Duy is apparently unaware of the huge roster of exile writers who have made major contributions to the literatures of their homelands. How could he be oblivious of Vallejo, Joyce, Beckett, Celan, Stein, Pound, Gombrowicz, Bei Dao, Gao Xingjian and Cortazar, etc.? Yet that's normal for a member of the clueless Vietnamese Writers Union. An exile poet and critic, Trinh Thanh Thuy, made a spirited rebuttal to Nguyen Duy. Among her points: “Influenced by the peculiarities of foreign languages and cultures, Vietnamese texts written overseas do not lose their strengths but gain new dimensions through awakened, previously latent capabilities.” Her contention is easily confirmed by the existence of Berlin-based Pham Thi Hoai and Paris-based Tran Vu, two of the best prose stylists in Vietnamese. Hoai’s intricate sentences show clear influences of German syntax, and Tran Vu’s best stories are excessive and very, very sick, as only French writing of a certain ilk can be. This doesn’t mean that we should all head into exile to awaken our latent capabilities. Most people don’t choose to go anywhere. Exile, as a consequence of war, persecution and other injustices, usually pick you.
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