‘가능성들의 장’으로서의 시

Poetry as a Field of Possibilities: A Mode of Self-reflexive Poetry

The structurally self-reflexive poetry may hold local meanings but does not allow them to be synthesized into an overarching meaning, conceptual or perceptual; it lacks any necessary integrating rule. The parts are organized so that they have multiple and undeterminable relationships with each other. This state or compositional principle can be described as the multiple and equally valid polarity of the field of possibilities. A number of 20th century’s poetic texts belong to this mode of the field of possibilities, which embraces any non-mimetic poems, whether they retain the discursive system or not, including John Ashbery, Gertrude Stein, Ray Dipalma, Charles Bernstein and Bruce Andrews. This poetic mode however differentiates itself not only from the traditional illusion-making poetry but the poems whose self-reflexiveness is simply achieved by directly and coherently narrating their own compositional principle. When it comes to discursive poetry, the field of possibilities requires the narrative incoherency, which relies on the disruption of the discursive level. Unlike the common misconception, however, the device of juxtaposition does not guarantee an inconsistent narrative because the disjunctive operation of juxtaposition is confined to the surface of the text. A poetic text may have a deep, say, connotative level, at which seemingly disconnected denotative meanings can be connected with each other. And these hidden connections can make possible a full narrative consistency. For non-discursive poetry, the field of possibilities is produced when perceptual meanings claim their own semantic value without being subject to a certain conceptual topic, hence without being mimetic as in pattern poetry or shaped poetry.