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(2016) The meaning of form in contemporary innovative poetry, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
Stefan Themerson
iconopoeia and thought-experiments in the theater of semantic poetry
Robert Sheppard
pp. 155-171
The invention of the"Semantic Poetry Translation" by Polish–British writer Stefan Themerson in the 1940s and the theoretical unfolding of his ideas in "Semantic Sonata" of 1949 had to wait until the 1970s to be appreciated, but only today it may be formally likened to certain Oulipo techniques. Replacing words with their definitions de-forms and re-forms original texts and allows for an examination of their (often dubious) claims. Offered as a species of "translation", the poems also involve "iconopoeia" as a technique, derived from Apollinaire's visual practice. "Semantic Sonata" suggests musical form, perhaps inspired by Schwitters' very different "Ur-Sonate", to articulate a linguistic philosophy of caution, in reaction to a post-War world where too many people believe too many things but do not know enough, as Themerson's friend Bertrand Russell puts it.
Publication details
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-34045-6_9
Full citation:
Sheppard, R. (2016). Stefan Themerson: iconopoeia and thought-experiments in the theater of semantic poetry, in The meaning of form in contemporary innovative poetry, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 155-171.
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