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Abstract

Appropriation and Reuse as Media Archaeology in Contemporary Swedish Poetry

This article deals with the practice in contemporary poetry of appropriation and recycling of extra-literary (or extra-aesthetic) materials, such as dictionaries, handbooks, user manuals, radio talks et cetera. The practice is situated within an avant-garde tradition of readymades, collages, and found poetry, which offers a historical context to the contemporary work. The analytical focus of the article is on three Swedish poets, who in various ways have explored this field of conceptually oriented writing during the last decade – Oskar Ponnert, Ida Börjel, and Ulf Karl Olov Nilsson. Even though their poetics vary, one might trace some common traits in their recycling of already existing textual, acoustic, and visual materials through concepts such as ’indexicality’ and ’materiality’. The article also suggests that their work could be designated as a kind of media archaeology in poetry – as a way of discussing and reflecting upon the conditions of memory and representation in a contemporary media society.