Premium
Jules Laforgue: Constructing the Text
Author(s) -
McCann John
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
orbis litterarum
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.109
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 1600-0730
pISSN - 0105-7510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0730.1991.tb01920.x
Subject(s) - alphabet , poetry , construct (python library) , value (mathematics) , meaning (existential) , linguistics , computer science , movement (music) , epistemology , aesthetics , philosophy , machine learning , programming language
The article looks at the problems involved in understanding Laforgue's poetry and asks whether these difficulties are, as has been claimed, symptoms of a universe slipping towards chaos or whether the meaninglessness is more apparent than real. It argues that the building‐blocks of Laforgue's poetic language are the letters of the alphabet which are combined and recycled like atoms. Thus, Laforgue is able to create new words such as‘violupté’by breaking up and re‐using existing ones. Language is imbued with change ‐so that it can adapt itself to convey new meanings. Change, therefore, is not totally negative. It is a movement in time that does more than tear down: it permits the recycling, the making new of what has gone before so that something of value can be handed on. Laforgue's extensive use of the intertext is part of this for it represents a renewal of tradition. Laforgue, then, uses protean, shifting language to construct a poetic artefact that will communicate meaning and preserve it for the future.