On Giorgio Agamben and the Poetics of Indifference

The lecture  will outline the relation between Agamben’s work in the field of poetics and his wider philosophical project. It will commence with an overview of Agamben’s philosophy, focusing on the notions of indifference and of communicability. With the basic architecture of Agamben's thought on board, the large majority of the rest of the paper concerns Agamben’s local comments on poetics. In particular it considers issues of poetic language as pure materiality, xenoglossia, glossolalia, onomatopoeia, enjambement, caesura, form, structure, rhythm and rhyme around a three part definition of the communicability of the term poetry in Europe in terms of language, lineation and rhythmical structure. The paper ends with an odd observation, a definition of poetry that is a definition of its inoperativity, and a use of poetry that is intended to sacrifice poetry in favour of wider philosophical aims.

William Watkin is professor at Brunel University London. His most recent book is The Literary Agamben: Adventures in Logopoiesis (Continuum, 2010). Previously he has published On Mourning: Theories of Loss in Modern Literature (Edinburgh University Press, 2004) and numerous articles on literature and philosophy. Watkin is currently working on a second book on Agamben, focusing on the topic of indifference-indistinction.