The prose-poem boundaries: Toward a Delimitation of Genre

Abstract

Since its birth, the generic label of prose poem has been twisted in order to admit a large variety of texts. It often happens that those texts, after a short reflection, escape from the minimal categories of the prose poem as a genre. This confusion is motivated, as it seems evident, by the polymorphism of the genre. Therefore, in this article we will try to offer a generic delimitation between the prose poem and the literary genres with which it has been usually mixed up (either from the prose or from the verse fields). For that purpose, we will consider the three criteria that have been globally accepted by the critics : brevity, organic unity and gratuity.