Signifying Substance: A Cultural Analysis of Early Modernist Language Practice

Abstract

There is a striking paradox in early modernist theory and practice concerning the nature of poetic discourse. Whereas some of its major representatives argued for "natural speech" and "prose effects" in poetry, above all in reaction to what was seen as the debased and hollow post-Romantic poetic diction of their most immediate predecessors, these arguments did not signal the openness towards everyday usage that could be read into them. Rather than adopting patterns of common discourse, poets evince a harshly critical stance to it, and especially to the language of the popular mass media.