Poeter versus skådespelare i Dagens dikt 2020–2021

Författare

  • Jimmie Svensson Göteborg, Umeå

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v52i2-3.6973

Nyckelord:

distant listening, oral reading, poetry performance, prosody, Swedish poetry

Abstract

“Poets versus Actors Reading Poetry on Swedish Radio 2020–2021”

Following the rise of the poet as the principal performer of his or her own work, in the second half of the 20th century, actors have been criticized for performing poetry as if acting on stage, or for focusing too much on conveying the lyric I. This primarily quantitative study investigates what prosodic differences there are between poets and actors reading poetry. The material consists of 276 readings from the Swedish public radio program Dagens dikt (The Daily Poem), from 2020 and 2021. A set of prosodic measures are produced for each recording with computational aid, and the groups are compared by using descriptive statistics. The differences found in terms of tempo and pausal patterns, though small, suggest that the actors read in a conventionally poetic, expressive style, while the poets are closer to a style typical of prose reading and conversational speech; this might be connected to differences between their respective repertoire – the poets reading newer, longer, and possibly more narrative texts. When it comes to pitch, there are more substantial differences: the poets are more monotonous and their tonal patterns more predictable, indicating a formal, less expressive style. These traits are associated with the highly stylized vocal cliché Poet Voice, which in turn is connected to poetological shifts in the last few decades. In both groups, however, younger individuals (born 1970 or later) and women, respectively, are the more monotonous and predictable; this might suggest a sociolinguistic trend not limited to poetry. Qualitative, close listening to a selection of readings largely confirms the findings of the quantitative investigation. While the frequently idiosyncratic poets tend to highlight form, such as rhythm and tonal repetitions, the actors rather try to convey the content of the poem, in accordance with prosodical and performative conventions.

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Författarbiografi

Jimmie Svensson, Göteborg, Umeå

Disputerade i Lund 2016 och har tidigare främst ägnat sig åt semiotiskt och multimodalt orienterad närläsning av lyrik. Med den här publicerade artikeln slutför han sitt postdokprojekt vid Institutionen för kultur- och medievetenskaper, Umeå. Han undervisar för närvarande i Umeå och Göteborg.

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Publicerad

2023-04-27

Referera så här

Svensson, J. (2023). Poeter versus skådespelare i Dagens dikt 2020–2021. Tidskrift för Litteraturvetenskap, 52(2-3). https://doi.org/10.54797/tfl.v52i2-3.6973

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