abstract
- A fascination with using the alphabet as subject-matter is evident in contemporary experimental poetry. This alphabetical poetics is a bold gesture of institutional critique and renewal. Rimbaud's sonnet 'Voyelles' is the key precursor text to this new poetry. My article focuses on four contemporary examples: Christian Bök's Eunoia, Ron Silliman's e Alphabet, Harryette Mullen's Sleeping with the Dictionary, and Inger Christensen's Alfabet. Eunoia builds on the work of Dada and the OuLiPo. Silliman's text exemplifies the aesthetics of the L - A - N - G - U - A - G - E movement. Harryette Mullen's approach to the alphabet is playful, subversive. Inger Christensen takes the Fibonacci sequence as a creative constraint.