Autobiographie et poésie chez Ernst Jandl. D'un procès l'autre

Abstract

The relationship that Ernst Jandl maintains with the question of the autobiographical resembles that found in the works of other poets, who are primarily interested in playing with « figures of the biographical » in their poems, a game with transgressive aspects which illuminate the historical and critical positioning of the work. In the works of Jandl, who often creates variations on the autobiographical form, one can observe that this « writing exhibiting autobiographical features » is based on a tension between an unwelcome form of sentimentality which is excessive and another form which is restrained but appropriate. This tension finds echoes in the work to the extent that the poem gives objective form to the subjective, in other words to the extent that it circles around the objectal element as if it were a medium prohibiting mediation ; this on the one hand constitutes the comic aspect of the work and on the other hand is meant to praise the human dimension and save it. It is this poetic movement which is analysed here.