Abstract
I would like to approach the enigma of Mallarmé’s blanc and would like to do so by examining poetry’s relationship with the act of salut as both salutation and salvation. I advance that le salut is the way in which le blanc gives itself to us: its phenomenality. How so? In his preface to Un coup de dés Mallarmé writes that “the ‘blanks,’ in effect, assume importance and are what is immediately most striking.” (Poems 121). The blank shows up first, as if to greet us, just as “Salut” appears first and welcomes us when we open Poésies. And so I ask, how does the blank give itself, and how do we, Mallarmé’s readers, receive it? Further, if salut is the phenomenality of le blanc, what does this tell us about the language of poetry and even about everyday life?
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© 2013 Joseph Acquisto
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Chi-ah Lyu, C. (2013). Blank Phenomenality. In: Acquisto, J. (eds) Thinking Poetry. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137329288_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137329288_8
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