Introduction: Poetic Practice and the Public

Abstract

From the 1990s to today, poetic practices in France engage with the forms and languages of public life. These works focus on representations and discourses circulating within the public sphere. Poetic practices turn to public problems, issues that seem to surpass available theoretical tools and demand new conceptual and artistic approaches. In an age of "médiarchie" (Yves Citton), the question of poetic practices and the public raises several lines of inquiry: How does poetry generate new performative modes and forms, and how do poets situate themselves before their public? What are the political stakes of poetry's turn toward the public sphere?