Ecopoetics Along Shorelines

WRITING IN THE FIELD

POETICS OF RELATION

April 27, 2018
upuplook

Edouard Glissant writes that the poetics of Relation is “[a] poetics that is latent, open, multilingual in intention, directly in contact with everything possible” (32). This poetics involves “giving-on-and-with” (33), rather than comprehending in the sense of grasping (17, 26); see the translator’s note for more on this phrase donner-avec (xiv). Glissant writes that peoples “cannot . . . ‘give-on-and-with’ until they reach the point at which they go beyond assenting to their linear drive alone and consent to global dynamics—practicing a self-break and a reconnection” (33). Please choose one of these questions: Where do you see “giving-on-and-with”  happening in the world? Or: Do you see writers/thinkers we’ve encountered in this class “practicing a self-break and a reconnection” as Glissant’s talking about?

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