Plastic Poetry: The Sculptural Imagination of Language in English Literature

Abstract

The current research paper critically analyses the idea of ‘plastic poetry’ as a transformative and interdisciplinary form of poetic expression in the present-day English literature. Going beyond the traditional perception of poetry as a linear and purely linguistic expression, the paper examines how plastic poetry redefines the meaning-form interrelation by prefiguring visuality, spatial structure, and materiality of words. The study follows the historical development of plastic poetry, beginning with early ‘pattern poetry’ and the ‘metaphysical experiments’ of George Herbert, an eminent poet from the school of John Donne’s poetry, and the modernist experimentation of Calligrams by Guillaume Apollinaire, a French poet and playwright, and the ‘concrete poetry movement’ organized by Eugen Gomringer, a Bolivian-born Swiss Concrete poet. Based on semiotics, structuralism, phenomenology, and postmodernism, the analysis claims that plastic poetry breaks the conventional signifier-signified relationship and turns the poem into a multisensory and participatory experience. In addition, the venture scrutinizes the main aesthetic principles of plastic poetry such as combination of form and content, engagement of the reader, and the importance of visual perception in sense-making. It also places this innovative genre of poetry in the digital era, underscoring its reformation as an interactive and multimedia poetry, which is enabled by the evolution of technology, hypertext, animation, and virtual worlds. The analysis belongs not only to the critical considerations about the validity, availability, and the aesthetical value of plastic poetry but also to the exploration of the philosophical essence of it in the perspectives of existentialism and phenomenological discerning. The enquiry, ultimately, intends that plastic poetry is not a break but a broadening of the possibilities of poetry, a dynamic and immersive and social responsive literary practice. It proclaims that plastic poetry as a bridge between literature, visual art, and digital media is an imperative approach that is indicative of the encounters of modern human experience and redefines the future of poetic expression.