Poema Enfora: Visualitat i Jocs Metaliteraris en la Poesia Experimental de la Segona Meitat del Segle Xx a Catalunya

Abstract

The article examines the boom in visual poetry that took place in the second half of the twentieth century, especially since the 1970s, and the research that was carried out into its rhetorical possibilities, which implied a step forward in the hybridization of verbal and visual language. One of the most productive forms of experimentation, and one shared by many authors, was the meta-literary games that invited readers to reflect on the artistic communication processes: these games used, above all, the material side of language and the co-existence of the word with other codes and languages. These meta-literary games led to another type of proposal that aimed to shake up readers and awaken their critical faculties when faced with the substantial amount of messages coming from the mass media; in short, they fostered what we call literacy, with poems that made use of materials taken from or inspired by the press or advertising, and gave them a new perspective. Finally, the article briefly questions whether critics and contemporary readers appreciated this poetry in all its social and combative dimensions, or whether it was viewed as hermetic and elitist poetry, with no links to social reality.