Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poète

This article focuses on the somatization of the creative process through the exploration of the ethnographic case of Tuareg poets. By analysing two corpora—the texts in which the poets describe themselves as “inspired” and as “prey to inspiration” and the informal descriptions given by “flesh and bl...

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Main Author: Amalia Dragani
Format: Article
Language:fra
Published: Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative 2019-07-01
Series:Ateliers d'Anthropologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/11684
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author Amalia Dragani
author_facet Amalia Dragani
author_sort Amalia Dragani
collection DOAJ
description This article focuses on the somatization of the creative process through the exploration of the ethnographic case of Tuareg poets. By analysing two corpora—the texts in which the poets describe themselves as “inspired” and as “prey to inspiration” and the informal descriptions given by “flesh and blood” poets of the creative process in moments of informal conversation and during my observation of the creative act—I was able to identify two distinguishing features. One concerns the body and the parts of the body involved in the creative process. As regards the former there is talk of “bodies in pieces, boiling, explosion” and emotional disorders that affect the internal organs such as the liver, heart, spleen and bowels. Moreover for “flesh-and-blood” poets, creation is essentially reflected in effects on the skin (e.g. goose bumps) and “small hairs and downs” (bristling), therefore on external organs. The second feature concerns the description of the creative act. While poetic texts focus on the moment before creation and are silent about post-creation, the informal descriptions operate in a symmetrical and inverted way, offering silence on inspiration and discourse on post-creation, on the “process of self-healing” brought by the creative process. To explain these differences, the following hypothesis is posited: describing oneself in a state of possession, as does the poet in this oral tradition, has two advantages, that of placing himself in an old tradition and that of staging a familiar state for his listeners, more familiar at least than inspiration.
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publisher Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative
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series Ateliers d'Anthropologie
spelling doaj-art-6391799ba63e4f079b0db8eefdbd505b2025-01-30T13:42:08ZfraLaboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie ComparativeAteliers d'Anthropologie2117-38692019-07-014610.4000/ateliers.11684Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poèteAmalia DraganiThis article focuses on the somatization of the creative process through the exploration of the ethnographic case of Tuareg poets. By analysing two corpora—the texts in which the poets describe themselves as “inspired” and as “prey to inspiration” and the informal descriptions given by “flesh and blood” poets of the creative process in moments of informal conversation and during my observation of the creative act—I was able to identify two distinguishing features. One concerns the body and the parts of the body involved in the creative process. As regards the former there is talk of “bodies in pieces, boiling, explosion” and emotional disorders that affect the internal organs such as the liver, heart, spleen and bowels. Moreover for “flesh-and-blood” poets, creation is essentially reflected in effects on the skin (e.g. goose bumps) and “small hairs and downs” (bristling), therefore on external organs. The second feature concerns the description of the creative act. While poetic texts focus on the moment before creation and are silent about post-creation, the informal descriptions operate in a symmetrical and inverted way, offering silence on inspiration and discourse on post-creation, on the “process of self-healing” brought by the creative process. To explain these differences, the following hypothesis is posited: describing oneself in a state of possession, as does the poet in this oral tradition, has two advantages, that of placing himself in an old tradition and that of staging a familiar state for his listeners, more familiar at least than inspiration.https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/11684bodypoetrycreationinspirationpossession
spellingShingle Amalia Dragani
Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poète
Ateliers d'Anthropologie
body
poetry
creation
inspiration
possession
title Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poète
title_full Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poète
title_fullStr Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poète
title_full_unstemmed Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poète
title_short Poète en morceaux, morceaux de poète
title_sort poete en morceaux morceaux de poete
topic body
poetry
creation
inspiration
possession
url https://journals.openedition.org/ateliers/11684
work_keys_str_mv AT amaliadragani poeteenmorceauxmorceauxdepoete