Poetry and Speculative Realism

 

Recent continental philosophy has turned away from the language-centered trends of the late 20th century, displacing the human consciousness from its central place in philosophical discourse (i.e. rejecting the limits of phenomenology) and making a return to speculations about the nature of being — space, time, objects, life and thought itself, whether human or not — that is more classically metaphysical. 

 

“Poetics” as it’s generally understood in North American poetry circles generally appreciated the centrality of language to philosophy — it made poetry seem quite important, as the negotiation with language in poetry became both a locus of political activism — change language and you change social relations — and also a research tool into the very nature of being. But what happens to poetics when this centrality of language is displaced?

 

My recent writing, collected in the forthcoming volume Word Toys: Poetry and Technics, attempts to create a speculative “poetics” that assimilates some of the new post-linguistic philosophy with a special emphasis on the relationship of poetry and the philosophy of technology. This talk will be a general, and accessible, overview of materials in my book, but also argue for new possibilities in poetry.