Redefining Resistance: The Poetic Wartime Discourses of Francis Ponge, Benjamin Peret, Henri Michaux and Antonin Artaud (Faux Titre 247)

The redefinition of resistance, developed here, by Esther Rowlands, consists of a recontextualisation, within the field of poetic language, of the current notion of resistance discourse as being the mouthpiece of a factual, historical message. Here, for the first time, this detailed study of selected wartime poetic texts, produced by Francis Ponge, Benjamin Péret, Henri Michaux and Antonin Artaud, compiled between 1936 and 1946, presents a specific critique of linguistic resistance, which explores the possibility for subversion to take place, without direct allusion to any named object of resistance. The urgency, of this notion, bases itself upon the premise that referentiality may be conceived as being retaliative and reactionary, thereby, risking replication of the dominant order. The relationship between poetic language and power structures is elucidated through reference to modern theorists: Michel De Certeau, Michel Foucault, Ross Chambers and Françoise Proust. The necessary framework, for a study of the poetic voice, draws upon aspects of the post-structuralist work of Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, incorporating specific theories, expounded by the Surrealist leader, André Breton. The works of such writers are foundational to a critique of discourse which, when applied by to the wartime works of the four named poets, suggests that poetic language may, itself, be a locus of resistance. This volume is of particular interest for undergraduates studying Surrealism, Second World Wartime Literature and Twentieth Century Stylistics.