Rejection of Closure

Abstract

The fragments published here from a book by one of the foremost representatives of the American school of ‘Language poetry’ describe a text all elements of which interact in such a way as to disprove the idea of it as a closed space. The author proposes the means that can serve the purpose of “opening up” of the poetic text; such means would be dependent on the elements of a given piece of poetry and on the intentions of its author. An open text is open to the world and, above all, to its reader; it invites participation. Given that any experience in the usage of language is an active one, the reader in order to find intertextual support (similar topics, motives, etc.) has to move from inside the text towards the outside, into the world which at any particular moment stands under the vertical and horizontal pressure of information, which is fraught with ambiguity, instability and significance.