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Forms of restricted iconicity in modern avant-garde poetry

  • John J. White
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Insistent Images
This chapter is in the book Insistent Images

Abstract

This paper explores some of the forms minimal iconicity has taken in European poetry. Covering the period from early modernism to the experiments of the Paris Oulipo group and recent concrete poets, it offers close readings of work by Man Ray, Christian Morgenstern, Ernst Jandl, Jirí Kolár, Harry Mathews, François Le Lionnais and Otto Nebel. Illustrating the inventiveness of minimalist iconicity, it shows that a reduced iconic repertoire can actually multiply the interpretive options available. Types of complexity analysed include: the interplay between visual and acoustic iconicity and instances of unstable referentiality in examples of form miming meaning and form miming form and hybrid combinations thereof. As visual and acoustic iconicity is superseded by diagrammatic forms, a process of intellectualization is shown to set in.

Abstract

This paper explores some of the forms minimal iconicity has taken in European poetry. Covering the period from early modernism to the experiments of the Paris Oulipo group and recent concrete poets, it offers close readings of work by Man Ray, Christian Morgenstern, Ernst Jandl, Jirí Kolár, Harry Mathews, François Le Lionnais and Otto Nebel. Illustrating the inventiveness of minimalist iconicity, it shows that a reduced iconic repertoire can actually multiply the interpretive options available. Types of complexity analysed include: the interplay between visual and acoustic iconicity and instances of unstable referentiality in examples of form miming meaning and form miming form and hybrid combinations thereof. As visual and acoustic iconicity is superseded by diagrammatic forms, a process of intellectualization is shown to set in.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of Contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Insistent Images 1
  6. PART I. Iconicity and grammaticalization
  7. Putting grammaticalization to the iconicity test 17
  8. Iconic thumbs, pinkies and pointers 37
  9. PART II. Iconicity and the aural
  10. The physical basis for phonological iconicity 57
  11. Reading aloud and Charles Dickens’ aural iconic prose style 73
  12. Iconicity and the divine in the fin de siècle poetry of W.B. Yeats 91
  13. Is lámatyáve a linguistic heresy? 103
  14. PART III. Iconicity and the visual
  15. The beauty of life and the variety of signs 113
  16. Forms of restricted iconicity in modern avant-garde poetry 129
  17. Eco-Iconicity in the poetry and poem-groups of E.E. Cummings 155
  18. The language of film is a matrix of icons 173
  19. Liberature 191
  20. PART IV. Iconicity and conceptualization
  21. Meaning on the one and on the other hand 211
  22. Iconic text strategies 229
  23. ‘Damn mad’ 247
  24. PART V. Iconicity and structure
  25. Iconicity and the grammar–lexis interface 269
  26. Iconicity in the coding of pragmatic functions 289
  27. Double negation and iconicity 301
  28. PART VI. Iconicity and multimedia / intertextuality
  29. Iconicity in multimedia performance 323
  30. Author index 347
  31. Subject index 353
https://doi.org/10.1075/ill.5.14whi

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface and acknowledgements vii
  4. List of Contributors ix
  5. Introduction: Insistent Images 1
  6. PART I. Iconicity and grammaticalization
  7. Putting grammaticalization to the iconicity test 17
  8. Iconic thumbs, pinkies and pointers 37
  9. PART II. Iconicity and the aural
  10. The physical basis for phonological iconicity 57
  11. Reading aloud and Charles Dickens’ aural iconic prose style 73
  12. Iconicity and the divine in the fin de siècle poetry of W.B. Yeats 91
  13. Is lámatyáve a linguistic heresy? 103
  14. PART III. Iconicity and the visual
  15. The beauty of life and the variety of signs 113
  16. Forms of restricted iconicity in modern avant-garde poetry 129
  17. Eco-Iconicity in the poetry and poem-groups of E.E. Cummings 155
  18. The language of film is a matrix of icons 173
  19. Liberature 191
  20. PART IV. Iconicity and conceptualization
  21. Meaning on the one and on the other hand 211
  22. Iconic text strategies 229
  23. ‘Damn mad’ 247
  24. PART V. Iconicity and structure
  25. Iconicity and the grammar–lexis interface 269
  26. Iconicity in the coding of pragmatic functions 289
  27. Double negation and iconicity 301
  28. PART VI. Iconicity and multimedia / intertextuality
  29. Iconicity in multimedia performance 323
  30. Author index 347
  31. Subject index 353
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