User talk:Infiniteflower
Liberature
[edit]Liberature is a new kind of literature in which a text and the material form of a book (Latin liber: a book, free)constitute n inseparable whole. In the work of this kind, it is not only the text that remains crucial, but also the shape and thourough construction of the book, its format, the number of pages, its typographical layout, the size and type of the font applied, pictures and photographies integrated with the text, and, finally, a type of paper or other material used in the process of creation. The reader is presented with a total work , a work which can assume a random shape, the quality which, in practice, may sometimes involve a radical separation from the traditional design of a book. It is a work fully original in its essence, as well as fully controlled by the writer on each level of creation.
The Beginnings of the Genre
[edit]The concept of liberature was conceived by Zenon Fajfer who highlighted the necessity of revising the terms forming the basis of the literary studies, that is a "material", "form", "literary work" or a "book". Then, the idea was developed by [[Katarzyna Bazarnik], who, basing her reflections on the analysis of the works by James Joyce, demonstrated that the similarity of the text and the form which creates the so-called iconicity, constitutes a typical feature of liberature, thereby embedding her idea in the vast context of the more and more dynamically developing studies of iconicity of a literary work.
The first contemporary work classified as liberature was a trilogy entitled Oka-leczenie penned by Zenon Fajfer in co-operation with Katarzyna Bazarnik. The work was published in Cracow, Poland in 2000 with a print run of 9 000. Yet, the very phenomenon of liberature is much ancient than the term itself: the works that possessed the characteristics of liberature were already penned by such writers as Laurence Sterne, William Blake, Stéphane Mallarmé, Stanisław Wyspiański, Blaise Cendrars, James Joyce, Raymond Queneau or B. S. Johnson. In the case of American postmodernist writers, Raymond Federman, Robert Gass and Ronald Sukenick come to the fore, althought their creative works were not scrutinized from such a perspective.
Development of Liberature
[edit]The percerption of liberature undergoes a gradual alteration, the result achieved owing to the contribution of the first in the world Czytelnia Liberatury (Liberature's Reading Room) founded in Cracow in 2002 which has in its collection numerous works of liberature from various countries and literary periods. The publishing house, Korporacja Ha!art, also contributed to the increase of popularity of liberature in Poland by publishing a series of books which includes classical works as well as those penned by contemporary writers.
The contemporary Western liberature constitutes the core of the development of liberature. In 2010 Jonathan Safran Foer published his new novel called Tree of Codes. Foer’s novels have always been rather unique: Everything is Illuminated has been described as “not only hail[ing] the advent of a post-postmodern literary age that is marked by the use of postmodernist textuality as a device but also establish[ing] the return of the subject and the performance of meaningful (inter)subjectivities as key concerns of the current historical moment.” Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, on the other hand, is an example of visual writing, utilizing typesetting, images, spaces and even blank pages to give the book a visual dimension beyond the prose narrative. Tree of Codes is an example of yet another type of hybrid, postmodern novels; it clearly belongs to the contemporary liberature movement.
Foer has taken his favorite book, The Street of Crocodiles by a Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz, and used it as a canvas, cutting into and out of the pages, to arrive at an original new story. In one interview the author emphasises that, although the originality of the story brought to life in such an innovative way is a very compelling feature, it was the form of the book that captivated him the most: “[…] I was more interested in subtracting than adding, and also in creating a book with a three-dimensional life. On the brink of the end of paper, I was attracted to the idea of a book that can’t forget it has a body.”
The critical reaction to Foer’s new book remains to be positive. In his Guardian review Michel Faber writes that: “Tree of Codes is a godsend to academics everywhere. What postgraduate who salivates at the sight of words such as ‘metatextuality’, ‘intertextuality’ and ‘hypertextuality’ could fail to feel a swelling in the PhD gland? Form and content are in intimate dialogue here. This objet d'art, composed substantially of empty spaces, is a conceptual must-have. If the masses can't relate to it, intellectuals may see all the more reason to concur with Vanity Fair'''s judgment that it's ‘very, very cool’.”
References
[edit]1. Amian, Katrin. Rethinking Postmodernism(s): Charles S. Peirce and the Pragmatist Negotiations of Thomas Pynchon, Toni Morrison, and Jonathan Safran Foer. New York: Rodopi, 2008. p. 202. 2.Heller, Steven (November 24, 2010). “Jonathan Safran Foer’s Book as Art Object”. Paper Cuts: A Blog About Books, NY Times. 3.Faber, Michel (December 18, 2010). “Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer – review.” The Guardian.
External Links:
Tree of Codes page at the official site of Visual Editions
Official promotional video of Tree of Codes