---e. smith sleigh, post structural poet and author
I searched for characteristics of modernist poetry and found those characteristics below.
The question that must be posed is what does Post-structuralism bring to the list of modernist characteristics. The answer is nothing. Post-structural poetry is not so much poetry without structure, but poetry after structure or post structure, including the poetry of the twentieth century.
The post-structural poet rejects the idea of traditional structure within literature, all literature, not just Western precepts. Post-structuralism runs concurrent with other styles, but rejects traditionalism for more personal, self-taught, self-presented unusual styles, tones and structure.
Twentieth Century Poetry's Formal characteristics
- Open Form
- Free verse
- Discontinuous narrative
- Juxtaposition
- Intertextuality
- Classical allusions
- Borrowings from other cultures and languages
- Unconventional use of metaphor
- Metanarrative
- Fragmentation
- Multiple narrative points of view (parallax)
Twentieth Century Poetry's Thematic characteristics
- Breakdown of social norms and cultural sureties
- Dislocation of meaning and sense from its normal context
- Valorization of the despairing individual in the face of an unmanageable future
- Disillusionment
- Stream of consciousness
- Rejection of history and the substitution of a mythical past, borrowed without chronology
- Product of the metropolis, of cities and urbanscapes
- Overwhelming technological changes of the 20th Century
Post-structuralism's ranking is being re-evaluated also. It is recognized as a movement in philosophy and literature (1960's and 70's diachronic approach to language), but not as a dominant force that destroys the old overdetermined, structured explanation for existence/BEING. It is complex and not conducive to the rigidity of the grand narrative which seeks to find a singular explicable Truth about reality. In post structuralism, all processes are continuously in a state of transformation and processes are in continuous movement and change.
The post-structuralist world has an effect, a complex, ripple-like effect on EVERYTHING and that's what the American gatekeepers of published poetry continue to fail to understand. Thus. in Europe and elsewhere, we find a Post-structural approach to poetry is embraced and rewarded.
- -- e. smith sleigh, post structural poet and author,
post-structuralism advocate and online pioneer in post-structural theory