Poetics East of West will bring together and form a synthesis of a decade of Olivier Burckhardt’s work as a poet and essayist. Apart from exploring original language material in Italian and French, in which he has mother-tongue fluency, a working knowledge of classical Chinese will enable the exploration of Chinese sources for which there are no existing translations.

This book-length sequence of essays will bring together:

• Wide-ranging series of interconnected essays on various aspects and facets of poetic traditions, both literary & popular, spanning a broad cross-cultural perspective from ancient to modern times.
• Diverse and original interdisciplinary approach to key issues relating to poetry and poetics.
• Clear and distinct development of ideas via a sequence of sections in which each essay concentrates on a succinct theme/aspect of poetry & poetics.
• Suggestions for further reading based on latest journal articles, web based research tools, & recent book titles.

Poetry, it has often been said, represents the pinnacle of cultural expression. Every nation and language group has given rise to a poetic tradition that defines and is defined by its epics, songs, and verses. Poetics East of West explores some of these myriad traditions and the nature of poetry through a series of short accessible essays.
From the definition of poetry as a way to give pattern to speech and thoughts, to notes on the ancient origins and modern trends of various traditions, from the Greco-Roman world and Mesopotamia to China and Aboriginal Australia, from grandma’s poems in the attic to the popular song as a modern echo of an ancient tradition, the essays will delve across the boundaries of time and cultures in an effort to better understand and appreciate poetry in all its contexts: both in literary and popular forms.
In taking a cross-cultural (or transcultural) approach that highlights how we are carried by and carry a tradition with a past that goes deeper than memory itself, the book aims to maintain an informed discussion that both challenges and stimulates ideas about the nature of literature, poetry, and language.

Initial Research & Development:

Redmond Barry 1854 Fellowship
(external link)

Initial research for the overall project was undertaken in 2005 thanks to a Redmond Barry 1854 Fellowship awarded by The University of Melbourne in conjunction with The State Library of Victoria.

A New Work Grant from the Literature Board of Australia Council (Nov. 2005) enabled Olivier Burckhardt to further develop the project and write the initial essays during the course of 2006.

Aims:

 ... among the various art forms poetry is perhaps unique, not in terms of any sense of supremacy or pre-eminence, but because the raw materials and mediums needed for its creation do not require any external means as such.

 From: 'Voicing Thought'

The aim of Poetics East of West is threefold:
1) To bring East, West and other poetic traditions face-to-face, searching out similarities and underlying differences.
2) To draw out the problems and issues related to poetic practice and appreciation of both ancient and modern poetry in literary and popular (sung) forms.
3) To raise some of the major theoretical and critical issues through specific examples. For instance, the issue of authorship will be looked at by examining the selection of poems ascribed to supernatural beings, disembodied spirits, and strange or uncanny poems found on the patterns of fishes’ scales in the Chinese collection The Complete Tang Poems (Quan Tang Shi) in the essay “The Talking Fish”.

Each essay will rely on specific examples of poetry and poets’ writing on poetry to illustrate the tradition under consideration.

Plan of the work:

Poetics East of West is divided into 4 sections. Each section will comprise 3 to 4 essays ranging from 4000 to 7000 words, for a total of 13 essays.
The thematic development through the four sections (from the exploration of the nature of poetic language to East-West parallels in poetic closure) is highlighted in the Table of Contents via brief descriptions of each essay.
Section 1
Giving Pattern To Speech: On The Definitions Of Poetry
Challenges the notion that words are the medium of poetry by bringing thought & sound to the foreground; Explores semantic, formal, and emotive patterns in the composition, delivery, and interpretation of poetry.
Section 2
Poetic Traditions: Notes On The Origins
Explores the notion of poetic inspiration; Anonymous oral origins and the development of the poet from historical or mythological persona to named individual; The rise of poetry as a literary tradition via poetry collections & anthologies.
Section 3
The Trends And Practice Of Poetry
Deepens some of the themes introduced in the first two sections through specific examples: The creation of a poetic language free from many semantic and grammatical rules; Private, public, & disembodied poetic voices.
Section 4
Some Modern And Ancient Parallels Across Cultures
Contrasts some key aspects of poetry that are common to many traditions both ancient & modern: i.e. obscure & accessible, and the epic & micro-poetic modes of poetry.

Current stage of the project
& completion date:

As of August 2008 about one third of the essays are in final draft stage, with the remainder of the essays in note-form or initial draft stage.

Expected completion date: late 2009.

Available sample essays:

An initial draft of:

Sung Poems: The Incantatory Voice (§ 1.3)
was published in:
Quadrant, 50:3 (2006): 70-73.

The opening essay to the whole series:
Voicing Thought (§ 1.1)
is availabe from the author on request
obinfo@obfuchai.com

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Voicing Thought

Sound and thought as the medium of poetry.

Giving Pattern to Speech

Formal patters of meaning & sound.

Sung Poems: The Incantatory Voice

On the verbal delivery of poetry.

“Sing in me Muse and Through me Tell the Tale”

On inspiration.

The Expression of Innermost Feelings & the Rise of the Individual Lyric Voice

Explores the development of the poet from anonymous historical persona to named individual.

Of Garlands and Canons

On the origins of poetry collections and anthologies East & West.

Waiting for the Verb

Poetry and freedom from the rules of grammar.

On Metonymy and the Vernacular in Poetry East & West

Explores the distinction between metaphor & metonymy in Chinese & Western poetic traditions.

The Use and Uselessness of Poetry East & West

On the didactic and other “Functions” of poetry.

 The Talking Fish

Poems ascribed to supernatural or disembodied spirits.

Trobar Leu & Trobar Clus

The accessible and obscure modes of poetry East & West.

Between Aposiopesis and Aporrhœa

On the just measure between silence & saying too much.

‘Ich Schluss’ or ‘I-closure’ in the Poetry of Horace and Tu Fu

Compares the standard Chinese poetic closure of introducing the poet’s persona at the end of a poem with examples from Western usage.

Bibliography

Index

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