Philosophy of Poetry: Absorption, Transformation, Re-Invigoration

• In Event: Philosophy and Literature: Mutual Distinctiveness and Reciprocal Bond

Abstract

This talk samples a variety of poetic-philosophical dialogues to trace the ways poets absorb, enact, alter, and ultimately reinvigorate philosophical inquiry. In my argument, as conceptual formulae are embodied in images, tropes, and rhymes, and integrated into sensory-emotional aspects of the text, poetry transforms abstract thought into an experientially and aesthetically grounded working out of truth. While some poets are in accord with extant philosophical scripts, more texts under consideration remold antecedent notions through lyrical utterance. This is not to suggest that poetry transforms philosophical dogma by default; rather, on a continuum from compliance to rethinking, poems—precisely on account of being strong lyrical statements—engage in a revisionist dialogue with philosophy. My examples will be drawn from late twentieth-century and twenty-first century poetry including lyrics by Joseph Brodsky, Elena Shvarts, Alla Gorbunova, and Aleksandr Skidan.

Author

• Sofya Khagi, U of Michigan