찰스 번스틴의 시학 연구

A Study of Charles Bernstein’s Poetics: Language as a Measure

This paper aims to expose performance-centered characteristics of CharlesBernstein’s poetics caused by his emphasis on materiality of language that hasbeen ‘unheard and invisible’ under the reign of semantics. He says, in poetry,two aspects of language, ‘sound’ and ‘look,’ have been ‘insufficientlyacknowledged’ because ‘semantic projection’ has ‘colonized’ materiality oflanguage: ‘sound’ by ‘speech’ and ‘letter’ by ‘writing.’ Semantics-centeredlanguage usage along with its supporting systems has ‘automatically translated’materiality of language into semantic meanings: ‘sound’ into ‘speech’ and‘letter’ into ‘writing.’ Language has been ‘used’ as an instrument for delivering‘transparent’ meanings. But by paying close attention to material aspects oflanguage, Charles Bernstein finds out ‘opaque’ materiality underneath‘transparent’ semantics in language. He recovers priority of materiality oflanguage through ‘dismantling’ centralization of semantics. He recognizes anoscillation or an unsynthesizable dialectic between opaque materiality andtransparent ‘references.’ His formal inventions, ‘parataxis,’ ‘constellations’ and‘collages’ are nothing less than prosodic methods which provide opportunitiesfor ‘encounters’ of ‘incommensurable elements’ of language liberated from thesemantic factory system which can manufacture only ‘speech’ and ‘writing.’To make ‘sound’ and ‘look’ of language heard and visible, he places greatemphasis on performance in poetry. He believes, performance will lead to anactive production of materiality of language rather than a passive consumptionof semantic products. Stresses on performance will demand a discussion ofmeasure in which materiality of language shows up predominantly even in thetraditional metrics. Against measure based on the syntactic flow, Bernsteinproposes ‘countermeasure’ through ‘syntactic scissoring’ which cuts up thesyntax and words, to introduce an interruption or a disruption into the flow ofmeasure counted according to phrasal development. ‘[D]iscrepant engagement’between measure and countermeasure intensifies rhythms of language. Activatedbodily experiences of materiality of language in performance, like aural andvisual faculties, allow for subsequent changes in ideas about space fromEuclidean to Non-Euclidean in which sensuous experiences through ear and eyecan be enacted more fully. Bernstein’s concentration on performance andmeasure shifts the focus of constituting power of language to material aspectsof language because language constructs the world not only with semantics butalso more importantly with materiality of language. That is why measure canbe not just a meter but also a measurement with which language ‘forges’ the world.