Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker
In this essay I explore the manifestations of condensation and displacement, the two major mechanisms identified by Freud in his study on Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, throughout the poetry of Lorine Niedecker. I begin by examining the implications of Niedecker’s definition of her poetics...
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| الحاوية / القاعدة: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles, |
|---|---|
| المؤلف الرئيسي: | |
| التنسيق: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| اللغة: | Anglais |
| منشور في: |
Angles
2020
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| الموضوعات: | |
| الوصول للمادة أونلاين: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| id |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_2058 |
|---|---|
| record_format |
openedition |
| collection |
OpenEdition Journal |
| language |
Anglais |
| format |
Article ou chapitre numérique |
| building |
0/Bibliothèque numérique/ 1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/ |
| topic |
économie Freud Sigmund déplacement Niedecker Lorine condenserie trait d’esprit syllepse condensation Freud Sigmund wit displacement Niedecker Lorine condensery syllepsis economy condensation |
| spellingShingle |
économie Freud Sigmund déplacement Niedecker Lorine condenserie trait d’esprit syllepse condensation Freud Sigmund wit displacement Niedecker Lorine condensery syllepsis economy condensation Nesme, Axel Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker |
| description |
In this essay I explore the manifestations of condensation and displacement, the two major mechanisms identified by Freud in his study on Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, throughout the poetry of Lorine Niedecker. I begin by examining the implications of Niedecker’s definition of her poetics as an art of “condensery,” starting with her idiosyncratic handling of the suffix, a mere distortion of common usage that remains compatible with language being a matter of joint ownership. Phenomena of condensation are also at work in the changes that Niedecker observes in the rock formations of the Lake Superior region and records in North Central, conflating geological and human time, and translating those processes into compound nouns which, though they seemingly erase linear syntactical relations, do not serve essentializing purposes, reducing instead the distance between words and things in the manner of Deleuzian incorporeal events. Following the same logic, punning on the word “compound” allows Niedecker to draw the lineaments of a non-capitalist intertextual economy in which symbolic interest is generated by borrowing, notably from Shakespeare’s own metapoetic puns. Such plays on words are where Niedecker’s art of condensation comes closest to Freud’s analysis of wit. Indeed, some of her poems involve semantic shortcuts or humorous double-entendres analogous to those described by Freud, while consistent with the above mentioned logic of the event. Niedecker’s technique is most reminiscent of metaphysical conceit, however, when she tackles the immediate historical context of the Cold War. Poetic “condensery,” in this particular instance, proves instrumental in displacing human conflict towards the scene of the textual agon. I suggest that the poet’s handling of displacement in her poems on the threat of nuclear “obliteration” also allows her to settle gendered literary disputes between Niedecker and Zukokfsky, and thereby question the agency of the Lacanian symbolic Other who, as it is called upon to authorize or invalidate certain lexical choices, also exposes its own failure to guarantee the subject’s utterances and being. |
| author |
Nesme, Axel |
| author_facet |
Nesme, Axel |
| author_sort |
Nesme, Axel |
| title |
Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker |
| title_short |
Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker |
| title_full |
Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker |
| title_fullStr |
Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker |
| title_sort |
condensation and displacement in the poetry of lorine niedecker |
| publisher |
Angles |
| publishDate |
2020 |
| container_title |
URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles |
| url |
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.2058 https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/angles/2058 |
| _version_ |
1877293948558376960 |
| spelling |
openedition-oai:revues.org:angles_2058 https://doi.org/10.4000/angles.2058 urn:doi:10.4000/angles.2058 en https://journals.openedition.org/angles/2058 2020-07-16T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/9n0q https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Condensation and Displacement in the Poetry of Lorine Niedecker Angles Société des Anglicistes de l'Enseignement Supérieur info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/2274-2042 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/angles Nesme, Axel économie Freud Sigmund déplacement Niedecker Lorine condenserie trait d’esprit syllepse condensation Freud Sigmund wit displacement Niedecker Lorine condensery syllepsis economy condensation In this essay I explore the manifestations of condensation and displacement, the two major mechanisms identified by Freud in his study on Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious, throughout the poetry of Lorine Niedecker. I begin by examining the implications of Niedecker’s definition of her poetics as an art of “condensery,” starting with her idiosyncratic handling of the suffix, a mere distortion of common usage that remains compatible with language being a matter of joint ownership. Phenomena of condensation are also at work in the changes that Niedecker observes in the rock formations of the Lake Superior region and records in North Central, conflating geological and human time, and translating those processes into compound nouns which, though they seemingly erase linear syntactical relations, do not serve essentializing purposes, reducing instead the distance between words and things in the manner of Deleuzian incorporeal events. Following the same logic, punning on the word “compound” allows Niedecker to draw the lineaments of a non-capitalist intertextual economy in which symbolic interest is generated by borrowing, notably from Shakespeare’s own metapoetic puns. Such plays on words are where Niedecker’s art of condensation comes closest to Freud’s analysis of wit. Indeed, some of her poems involve semantic shortcuts or humorous double-entendres analogous to those described by Freud, while consistent with the above mentioned logic of the event. Niedecker’s technique is most reminiscent of metaphysical conceit, however, when she tackles the immediate historical context of the Cold War. Poetic “condensery,” in this particular instance, proves instrumental in displacing human conflict towards the scene of the textual agon. I suggest that the poet’s handling of displacement in her poems on the threat of nuclear “obliteration” also allows her to settle gendered literary disputes between Niedecker and Zukokfsky, and thereby question the agency of the Lacanian symbolic Other who, as it is called upon to authorize or invalidate certain lexical choices, also exposes its own failure to guarantee the subject’s utterances and being. Il s’agit dans cette étude d’explorer, dans l’œuvre poétique de Lorine Niedecker, les manifestations des mécanismes de condensation et de déplacement que Freud place au centre de son étude sur Le Trait d’esprit et sa relation à l’inconscient. La poésie de Niedecker, placée sous le signe de la « condenserie », investit tout d’abord le traitement singulier du suffixe qui est partie intégrante de ce terme dont Niedecker modifie l’usage ordinaire tout en restant dans les limites d’une conception de la langue comme propriété partagée. La condensation est également à l’œuvre dans les transformations que Niedecker observe dans les roches de la région du Lac Supérieur et dont elle dresse le registre dans le recueil North Central confondant temporalités géologique et humaine, et traduisant ces processus sous forme de noms composés qui, quoiqu’ils semblent effacer les relations syntaxiques dans leur linéarité, ne sont pas pour autant subordonnés à une visée essentialiste, mais œuvrent à réduire l’écart entre les mots et les choses à la manière de l’événement incorporel évoqué par Deleuze. Dans la même logique, en jouant sur le double sens du mot « compound », Niedecker esquisse les contours d’une économie intertextuelle non capitaliste dans laquelle l’emprunt est générateur de gain symbolique, notamment lorsqu’il porte sur les jeux de mots métapoétiques shakespeariens. C’est dans ces dispositifs que l’art niedeckerien de la condensation s’approche au plus près du trait d’esprit analysé par Freud, certains poèmes opérant raccourcis sémantiques ou double-entendres semblables à ceux qu’évoque Freud, même s’ils relèvent en dernière analyse de la logique de l’événement déjà évoquée. Ce sont toutefois des ressources proches de celles du conceit métaphysique que Niedecker mobilise lorsqu’il s’agit pour elle d’aborder le contexte immédiat de la Guerre Froide, dans lequel la pratique de la « condenserie » permet de déplacer le conflit sur la scène de l’agon textuel. La stratégie de déplacement qui opère dans les poèmes consacrés à la menace d’ « oblitération » nucléaire permet également à Niedecker de régler tel différend littéraire et genré qui l’oppose à Zukofsky, et par là, d’interroger l’instance de l’Autre symbolique conceptualisée par Lacan, Autre qui, en même temps qu’il est sommé d’autoriser ou d’invalider certains choix lexicaux, expose également sa propre incapacité à garantir les énoncés et l’être même du sujet. |