Écrire, écrire, pourquoi ? Philippe Sollers

Piano Triptych “Shadows” by F. Schmitt as a Reflection of the French National Tradition

“…G. Kosikov sees the role of the poet as follows: "It is not for nothing that the surrealists swore by his name, and it is no coincidence that postmodernism counts him among its most glorious predecessors" (Kosikov, 1998). And F. Sollers, characterizing "Songs of Maldoror", wittily remarks: "To think that this is an example of a "poetic experience" is the same as to take phrases for pictures when decoding a non-phonetic text" (Sollers, 1967). In turn, W. Whitman contributed to the progress of American poetry -researchers call him one of the founders of the free verse: "Whitman's verse is extremely rhythmic and yet is not subject to a strict metric scheme, because Whitman initiated the American tradition of free verse, which, as a rule, avoids the meter and rhymes.…”

Ezra Pound : Tel quel !

“…Si cette position révolutionnaire n'est pas tenue, on réoriente nécessairement l'interprétation vers l'idéologie dominante et sa fascination technocratique (exemple, chez Butor lui-même, l'investissement d'une culture positiviste européenne dans le référent américain). Alors qu'il s'agit de déchiffrer la production « poétique » (ou littéraire en général) comme langage spécifique de l'histoire du côté où l'histoire se fait depuis un dehors (les révolutions, le travail des masses) en dialectique avec la connaissance subversive de ce dehors 10 .…”

What Counts as Literature?

“…40 Invoking a silent instrument that circulates above, Sollers hints not only at orbital observation but also at the world's enumeration from orbit: 'Night is turning and forming itself above the cities -where the mute machines are henceforth capable of reading, deciphering, counting, writing, and remembering' . 41 The notion of a machinic production of meaning guides Derrida's commentary on Numbers, a novel that seeks a break in representation (which would allow 'a pure appearance of appearing through which the present seems to free itself from the textual machine' 42 ) but also exposes the making present that must occur when this break is articulated. '"Presence, " or "production, " is but a product' , Derrida writes, 'The product of an arithmetic operation' .…”