Poeticized Language: The Foundations of Contemporary French Poetry (review)

This impressive study takes as its point of departure portions of a book previously published in French in 1989 by Jean-Jacques Thomas (La Langue, la poésie: Essais sur la poésie française contemporaine), as well as articles written by him and by Steven Winspur. Using many of the findings and principles culled from some of the best research in modern linguistics, structural stylistics, semiotics and poststructuralist criticism, Thomas and Winspur (henceforth T & W) have produced an elegant and methodical rereading of much of our time’s most celebrated, if oftentimes seemingly obscure, French poetry. Their book represents an extraordinary case in which a combination of old and new materials far exceeds the mere sum of its constitutive parts. Indeed, with the addition of several new essays and significant re-workings of earlier publications, the present work goes beyond what either author has already contributed to the particular subject at hand. This is saying a lot, given their vital individual contributions to our understanding of contemporary French poetry.