Contemporary French Poetic Practice: an interdisciplinary approach

Poetry is often treated as a genre set apart and hard to access, but recent poetic practice in French, in very diverse ways, demonstrates that poetry is inseparable from other genres of writing, and other arts, media and disciplines:
- poets work with visual artists, photographers and musicians on collaborative productions;
- poets are themselves performers, artists, musicians, filmmakers, philosophers, and translators;
- developments in poetry have influenced philosophy and political thought, translation practices, film-making and other visual arts;
- new technologies have changed the media in which poetry is created and distributed.
The project will explore poetic practice from an interdisciplinary perspective. It will aim at producing new methods appropriate to the study of contemporary work, along with new definitions of 'poetic practice', and it will develop future research agendas. It will include the active involvement of practitioners to encourage greater interaction between research and practice.
This will be achieved by establishing an international network of academics and practitioners. Many of the academics have established research records, but there will also be a significant number of early-career researchers. Vital to the network will be practitioners who will include both internationally-recognized and innovative young poets, artists and performers. The network and its activities will be coordinated by Emma Wagstaff (University of Birmingham) and Nina Parish (University of Bath).
The network will meet for five themed workshops to consider differences in approaches and work towards a future research agenda. The workshops will be accompanied by open-access activities that will showcase the work of practitioners and disseminate it to a wider audience:
- workshop 1: Poetry and the visual arts at the University of Cambridge, accompanied by an exhibition of works produced in collaboration by poets, artists and photographers.
- workshop 2: Poetry and new technologies at the University of Bath, accompanied by a virtual exhibition of digital poetry.
- workshop 3: Poetry, philosophy and politics at the University of Oxford.
- workshop 4: Poetry, music and performance at the University of Birmingham, accompanied by a performance by musicians and a performance poet.
- workshop 5: Poetry and translation, at the Centre International de poésie Marseille, France, accompanied by a practical poetry translation workshop led by translators.
The outputs for the project include publications that will be informative for academic researchers and practitioners, and an open-access website that will include summaries or podcasts of the papers presented and examples of poets' work. It will also act as a hub for future discussion and research, bringing together links to practitioners' sites and to the research of other groups working on similar themes in different language areas.

The rationale for this project is that far from being a niche field, poetry is central to much contemporary cultural practice and even political engagement. Outputs and dissemination will bring French poetic practice to a wider audience and highlight its importance beyond the area of French literature.
Immediate impact:
Dissemination aiming at immediate impact will be achieved by the open-access events accompanying the workshops:
- The exhibition (workshop 1 in Cambridge) will target regular gallery-and exhibition-goers. It will tie in with an exhibition of French avant-garde artists' books likely to be mounted at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge in 2013, through the exchange of publicity and recommendations between the two projects. A successful previous exhibition was held at the Fitzwilliam Museum in 2001, and smaller exhibitions attract regular visitors, including, for instance, an exhibition of the work of Henri Maccheroni, Michel Butor, and other writer/artist collaborations in 2007. In addition, Magdalene College, the venue for the workshop, will be hosting a Festival of the Image including talks on related themes.
- The virtual exhibition (workshop 2 in Bath) will be showcased at the workshop, but will be by definition widely accessible. The university Modern Languages department maintains connections with French civilization groups in the city, which offers opportunities to involve active community members. Students following 'A'-level modules in modern cultural practices will be able to see examples of the use made by poets of multimedia technology.
- For the poetry and music performance (workshop 4 in Birmingham), various interest groups include the audience for musical performances attracted by regular events at the Barber Institute (which has a developing reputation for avant-garde contemporary music), and local French alumni (there was significant attendance from this group for a recent literature and translation event organized by the French department).
- The translation workshop (workshop 5 in Marseilles) will not be held at an academic institution, but at the Centre international de poésie, which regularly attracts audiences from the Marseilles and Aix-en-Provence region. The practical translation workshop will benefit non-academic participants, and will build on the considerable experience this centre has in the field of poetry and translation. The workshop will also address the issue of book production practices in France and the UK, making use of the experience of the Centre's staff in publishing. The workshop will also be publicized within the Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013 initiative.
Medium-term impact:
Participation by translators, poets, performers, artists and photographers will aid their understanding of the other fields with which they interact. The new connections they make are likely to influence their future practice, which members of the public will encounter when reading their texts and translations or attending exhibitions and performances of their work.
Long-term impact:
The aim is to set a future research agenda and to allow for links with projects in other language areas. This will involve further collaborative projects within and beyond the area of French Studies. It is envisaged that collaboration with the Centre international de poésie Marseille will be extended to include its publishing activities, with links being made to UK publishers of poetry in translation such as Carcanet and Bloodaxe.