Abstract
The invention of the‘Semantic Poetry Translation’ by Polish–British writer Stefan Themerson in the 1940s and the theoretical unfolding of his ideas in ‘Semantic Sonata’ of 1949 had to wait until the 1970s to be appreciated, but only today it may be formally likened to certain Oulipo techniques. Replacing words with their definitions de-forms and re-forms original texts and allows for an examination of their (often dubious) claims. Offered as a species of ‘translation’, the poems also involve ‘iconopoeia’ as a technique, derived from Apollinaire’s visual practice. ‘Semantic Sonata’ suggests musical form, perhaps inspired by Schwitters’ very different ‘Ur-Sonate’, to articulate a linguistic philosophy of caution, in reaction to a post-War world where too many people believe too many things but do not know enough, as Themerson’s friend Bertrand Russell puts it.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Attridge, Derek. 2004a. The Singularity of Literature. London: Routledge.
———. 2004b. J.M. Coetzee & The Ethics of Reading: Literature in the Event. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Bruns, Gerald L. 2005. The Material of Poetry. Athens: The University of Georgia Press.
Goldsmith, Kenneth. 2008. A Week of Blogs for the Poetry Foundation. In The Consequence for Innovation: 21st Century Poetics, ed. Craig Dworkin, 137–149. New York: Roof.
Kubasiewicz, Jan, and Monica Strauss, eds. 1993. The Themersons and the Gaberbocchus Press—An Experiment in Publishing, 1948–1979. New York: MJS Books & Graphics.
Motte, Warren F., ed. 1986. Oulipo: A Primer of Potential Literature. Lincoln: The University of Nabraska Press.
Mottram, Eric. 1993. The British Poetry Revival, 1960–75. In New British Poetries, eds. Robert Hampson and Peter Barry, 15–50. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Rilke, R.M. 1966. Archaic Torso of Apollo. Trans. Vernon Watkins. In Modern European Poetry, ed. William Barnstone, 122. Toronto: Bantam Books.
Russell, Bertrand. 1984. Preface. In Professor Mmaa’s Lecture, ed. Stefan Themerson, i–ii. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press.
Sheppard, Robert. 2005. The Poetry of Saying: British Poetry and Its Discontents, 1950–2000. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press.
Themerson, Stefan. 1958. Kurt Schwitters in England. London: Gaberbocchus Press.
———. 1961. Cardinal Pölätüo. London: Gaberbocchus Press.
———. 1965. Bayamus and the Theatre of Semantic Poetry. London: Gaberbocchus Press.
———. 1968. Apollinaire’s Lyrical Ideograms. London: Gaberbocchus Press.
———. 1975. On Semantic Poetry. London: Gaberbocchus Press.
———. 1977. ‘1. “Theatre of Semantic Poetry”….2. “Semantic Sonata”’. 1983. Supranormal Cassettes, No. 3, side 2. Cassette tape.
———. 1997. Collected Poems. Amsterdam: Gaberbocchus Press.
Wright, Barbara. 2005. Preface. In Hobson’s Island, ed. Stefan Themerson, v–xii. Normal: Dalkey Archive.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sheppard, R. (2016). Stefan Themerson: Iconopoeia and Thought-Experiments in the Theater of Semantic Poetry. In: The Meaning of Form in Contemporary Innovative Poetry. Modern and Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34045-6_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34045-6_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-34044-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-34045-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)