European Beat Studies Network Conference 2 August 28-30, 2013

AALBORG UNIVERSITY, DENMARK

Abstracts for EBSN-2, Aalborg 2013

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Mahdi Shafieyan:

The Poetic Performance and the Beats

The poetic performance, despite its long tradition in different nationalities, in

contemporary American literature was sparked roughly from 1955, when Alan

Ginsberg read Howl, with Jack Kerouac’s cheering, to bring the true significance

of poetry performance as an antiestablishment gesture in the United States. The

event, in addition, marked the beginning of the San Francisco Renaissance, which

is a performative movement par excellence. On the other hand, the Beats took

Charles Olson’s idea that the limitations of poetry arise from “manuscript, press, the

removal of verse from its producer and reproducer, the voice, the removal by once,

twice remove from its place of origin. (When breath goes, spiritus goes.)” This has

been the key to the metaphysics of the poetic performance, which relies on the

presence of a living, or breathing, poet/performer with whom a package of

critical notions, such as intentionality, epistemological presence or meaning, and

responsibility, among others, exists.

The present research examines the role the Beats have played asone of the

foundation stones of the poetic performance in which some themes like

imagery, digitalization, and visualization are clearly extant. Then, it comes to

read some of the Beat works by Jacques Derrida’s “metaphysics of presence” in

which speech or performance vis-à-vis writing or script; intention, intonation,

and interpretation; as well as existential and temporal presences are of

paramount significance. The findings confirm that although in some aspects the

Beats have been deconstructive, their works can challenge

Derrida’s deconstruction on a higher level.

Dr. Mahdi Shafieyan

Imam Sadiq University, Tehran