Anti-poetry is aliterary movement that advocates breaking the usual conventions of traditionalpoetry. Early proponents of anti-poetry include the ChileanNicanor Parra[1] and the GreekElias Petropoulos.[2]
Parra, known as the father of anti-poetry, published his first collection of anti-poems in 1954,[3] rejecting the conventional belief that a verse holds amystical power. His poems have been described as prose-like, irreverent, and illuminating of humanexistential concerns.[4]
Petropoulos sought to describe the art of anti-poetry in his Berlin notebook, containing verses that included intentionally-made mistakes of prosody, grammar, and rhyme. An inspiration for many of his poems was the difficult atmosphere of thewall-divided Berlin where he resided. He had come to believe that poetry centered on love and desire, was too gentle for modern literature – that it was time for an anti-poetry incorporating anti-sentimental feelings.[5]
During 5th century B.C, theatrical sketches called mimes were being introduced with ideas and languages that were determined to be anti-plays. There had been times when poets would turn against his/her own poetry in an antagonistic way. Anti poetry can be found and cited from the first poets of Italy and also (Dante, followed byPetrarch) as well as some other places in Europe. They made the decision to compose verses in vernacular rather than Latin, and were therefore behaving in an anti-poetic manner. Many playwrights, includingWilliam Shakespeare andMoliere, were cited for using anti-poetry within a verse play.[5]
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Anti-poetry has been picked up in the 21st century. Modern anti-poetry carries the same spirit as the early writers, but is still distinct in nature. In modern anti-poetry, punctuation is minimal and only used as necessary. Formatting and capitalization are simple and friendly to the eye. It also incorporates new vocabulary and depicts poetic images and scenes.
Taking inspiration fromDada andperformance poetry anti-poetry reading performances have gained momentum in thePrague,Czech Republic.[6][7] The Prague-basedperformance andpoetics collectiveObject:Paradise began in 2019 by Tyko Say with the mission to make "poetry readings more inclusive and inter-disciplinary and less restricted to art cafes and turtlenecks".[8][9] Since then, the collective has hostedperformance poetry events which feature a variety of disciplineshappening at the same time to highlight "everything that happens at apoetry reading besides the poetry reading itself".[10][11][12]
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