Neohelicon

, Volume 39, Issue 2, pp 305–319 | Cite as

Writing in secret: kabbalistic language mysticism and messianic teleology in lettrism

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Abstract

The article addresses the influence of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah, and messianism in the avant-garde movement lettrism. The poetic experiments of Jewish avant-gardists were often influenced by Kabbalah and this study focuses on the theme of secrecy and its manifestations in writing. Lettrism adopts the elements of the so-called kabbalistic secret writing, which resembles written language but is fundamentally opaque. The secret thus hidden is at once linguistic and ontological. Therefore, the secret is here analysed both as a medial and an ontological opening, which dispel the dualisms recurring in rational modes of thinking. Hence, the secret appears as a manifestation of a cognitive void. Even though the secret cannot be known, it resides at the temporal limits of the phenomenal world and includes a teleological vector. This vector implies that the secret is entwined in a messianic promise according to which language will eventually signify and mediate meaning.

Keywords

Lettrism Secrecy Kabbalah-influenced art theory Mysticism Messianism Isidore Isou 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This article is a part of the project “Literature, Transcendence, Avant-Garde” (SA 1121211), funded by the Academy of Finland.

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Copyright information

© Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.University of HelsinkiHelsinkiFinland

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