The Avant-garde as Primary Link Between American Language Poets and Some French Publishers (1975-2018)

Abstract

The aim of this essay is to analyze how the American language poets’ presence in France corresponds to the significant interest of some French publishers in the avant-garde. To this end, an historiographical analysis is carried out on the production, and dissemination of the language poets’s work published in France between 1975 and 2018 in 9 publishers, including 40 authors, and 104 different titles involved in experimentalim and internationalism. The emphasis of both these poets and editors on avant-garde is consistent with what Peter Bürger calls a “historically necessary newness,” which has discursive implications at the literary, political, social, and consciousness level. This approach is particularly evident in these poets’ interest in the role of language, problem of representation and commodification of poetry. Coincidentally, one can verify how the French editors who published these experimental poets shared the same discursive and aesthetic propositions.