Found Poetry as Literature Review

Abstract

Creating found poetry from theoretical literature offers an arts-based approach to literature review in inquiry. Found poetry has a long history of practice in poetry as the imaginative appropriation and reconstruction of already-existing texts. This article presents literature-voiced research found poems that express distillations and crystallizations of a wide range of writing in contemporary continental philosophy and performance theory. The suite of poems forms part of a current dissertation inquiry in the form of a curriculum theory of audience in performance and education.T he found poems on audience and performance presented here have been created as part of the literature review component of my current doctoral dissertation project in interdisciplinary studies (theater and curriculum) at the University of Victoria, British Columbia (see also Prendergast, 2001Prendergast, , 2004bPrendergast, , 2004d. The poems represent emerging understandings of audience in performance coming from readings in contemporary continental aesthetic philosophy and theater/performance theory. The suite serves to reflect on, play against, and perform with the central topic of this inquiry, that of developing a curriculum theory for audience education in the performing arts. My intention is to place these poems, and others, as chapters and as interludes within and between chapters throughout my dissertation (see also Prendergast, 2004c. Research poetry used in this context offers an alternative method for understanding and representing key theories and texts in inquiry. This aesthetic and intellectual choice is drawn from my belief that the transitory, ephemeral, and affective nature of performance requires a similar form of writing. This kind of language is clearly to be found in poetry, with its unique ability to capture and present aspects of the past (in memory),

Exploring the Transformative Effects of Flow on Children’s Liminality and Trauma

“…The poem summarizes the learnings from the literature reviewed in this paper. As Prendergast (2006) describes in a "Found Poetry" discussion, the poet relies on the results discovered in research. The poem below expresses the healing effect of flow, starting first with the (mystical/self-transcendence) feelings experienced in the flow, then moving to the various areas in which flow has been reported.…”

“Stop Thinking Like a Social Scientist and Start Thinking Like an Artist”

“…This allowed me to capture others' original words and portray them in imaginative and powerful ways (Prendergast, 2006). While writing these poems, I never considered them art or even good poems, yet I still felt much meaning was captured by them-much more than a traditional prosaic text describing others' reactions to their friend's suicide.…”

Poetic Possibilities

“…The expression of a social world is a new, different, and alternative way of seeing and being. In the past two decades, qualitative researchers (Brady, 2000;Faulkner, 2009;Finley, 2000;Glesne, 1997;Hones, 1998;Lahman et al, 2011;Leavy, 2015;MacNeil, 2001;Prendergast, 2006;Reinertsen, Ben-Horin, & Borgenvik, 2014;Richardson, 2000Richardson, , 2002Sjollema, Hordyk, Walsh, Hanley, & Ives, 2012;Tasker, Loftus, & Higgs, 2014) have been writing poetry as research for evocative expression, for alternative discovery, and for creative being, potentially bridging divisions between their participants and themselves. Perhaps Lawrence Ferlinghetti (2007) captures this evolution, saying ''poetry is the shortest distance between two humans'' (p. 40).…”