Poetological Lists: Writing-Scenes in Contemporary Literature

Abstract

The article focuses on literary lists the items of which demonstrate the practice of writing, that is, those which evoke a “writing-scene” (R. Campe). These poetological lists consolidate the self-reflexive potential of literary texts, gather elements of narration in list form, stage the conditions for a non-linear narrative in the list or even thematize the “genea-logic” of narrative and writing. Under consideration are four lists (all in the second half of the twentieth century) from the most disparate of genres: lyric poetry (Inger Christensen), the manifesto (Jack Kerouac), the novel (Italo Calvino), and the autobiography (Roland Barthes). Each of these lists reflects not only the process of writing and poetics but also genre specificity.