Moxham, Sarah Elizabeth Alice; (2022) Poetic Happenings: The Interactions of French and Italian Poetry in Print and Performance Art, 1958 to 1981. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text Sarah E A Moxham - Redacted Thesis.pdf - Other Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 January 2025. Download (2MB)

Abstract

Whilst the relationships between poetry to music, the visual arts, cinema and, to a certain extent, dance have been widely discussed, current scholarship regarding the interaction between poetry and performance art is extremely underdeveloped. The neglect of this area of research is all the more surprising given that many European twentieth-century poets experimented with performance or performative techniques to capture the essence of the modern world, and challenge the confines of bourgeois art and literature. Italian Futurists, Dadaists, and Surrealists were central to poetic-performative innovation at the beginning of the twentieth century, but did French and Italian creatives remain in the vanguard of such activity after the Second World War? My dissertation examines the dynamics between poetry in print and performance art in France and Italy from 1958, the official birth date of an early form of post-war performance art known as Happenings, to 1981, a moment that marks a shift from performance art to performance poetry. By merging the ever-expanding sphere of printed poetry with the nebulous domain of performance art, I unearth aspects of both literary and performance studies hitherto overlooked, illuminating the links that bind poetic orality and performativity to the poetic written word. In this manner, I evaluate the ‘poetic’ label seldom explored but frequently applied to performance art, and investigate written poetry from an often-ignored perspective: its application in society, not only as an object of cultural critique but also as a facilitator of civic change, socio-artistic activism, collaborative research, performative therapy, community building, and pedagogical reflection. Through my analysis of a diverse collection of works, the dissertation demonstrates how poets and performance artists adapt a variety of creative elements to capture the spirit of ‘total poetry’, a dynamic, hybrid medium committed to continuing socio-artistic possibilities.

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