Claude Royet-Journoud Order from Small Press Distribution An aphoristic complement to Royet-Journoud's recent book Theory of Prepositions, this collection of propositions manages to be simultaneously provocative and contemplative. The evocation of the preposition is not without its homage to Louis Zukofsky, a poet central to Royet-Journoud's work; they share a deep affinity for the particular, and beyond that, for the actual particulars that compose our days, and for the delicate tissue that binds them: " . . . in the very articulation, sense becomes magnetic." Here the poetics of one of the most important poets of the late 20th/early 21st century is articulatedÂlucidly and luminously. In short, he sheds light on the subject. Claude Royet-Journoud's work has been central to the revolution in poetry that has directed the course of French letters since the mid-1960s. He has been seminal in reconceiving the subject and its performance in the theater of the page, and has been a determining influence on subsequent generations of poets. His tetralogy, published by Gallimard from 1972 to 1997, is already a classic in the long tradition of French poetic innovation that goes back to François Villon. In this new work, he addresses his poetics with a grace and concision that constitutes a new poetic genre. |
