Shakespeare fra 8210

Dana Gioia, der er en fremragende amerikansk poet og kritiker, skriver i dette fine essay om, hvordan poesien, som nogle af os kender den, om muligt reagerer på at blive marginaliseret af nye former for poesi, fx raptekster, language poetry, poetry slam og, mindre relevant for danske forhold, cowboy poetry m.m. Det er et interessant perspektiv, som Gioia fremkommer med, og selvom man måske af og til kan blive en smule trist over, hvor lidt poesien fylder inden for den akademiske verden, hvor litteraturen som sådan er underlagt alle mulige og umulige former for "cultural studies", og hvor den som en feltmadras ligger fladmast allernederst, så er der måske alligevel håb at spore. Ved at være så utrendy ender poesien måske alligevel med at blive trendy igen, en litteratur for tabere som os. I hvert fald får jeg modet tilbage, når Gioia afslutter sit essay sådan her:

"Although conventional wisdom portrays the rise of electronic media and the relative decline of print as a disaster for all kinds of literature, this situation is largely beneficial for poetry. It has not created a polarized choice between spoken and printed information. Both media coexist in their many often-overlapping forms. What the new technology has done is slightly readjust the contemporary sensibility in favor of sound and orality. The relation between print and speech in American culture today is probably closer to that in Shakespeare’s age than Eliot’s era—not an altogether bad situation for a poet. For the first time in a century there is the possibility of serious literary poetry reengaging a non-specialized audience of artists and intellectuals, both in and out of the academy. There is also an opportunity of recentering the art on an aesthetic that combines the pleasures of oral media and richness of print culture, that draws from tradition without being limited by the past, that embraces form and narrative without rejecting the experimental heritage of Modernism, and that recognizes the necessary interdependence of high and popular culture. A serious art does not need a large audience to prosper—only a lively, diverse, and engaged one.
As long as humanity faces mortality and uses language to describe its existence, poetry will remain one of its essential spiritual resources. Poetry is an art that preceded writing, and it will survive television and video games. How? Mostly by being itself—concise, immediate, emotive, memorable, and musical, the qualities most prized in the new oral culture, which are also the virtues traditionally associated with the art. Serious literary poetry may even be better positioned to thrive in this new century than that greatest creation of print culture, the novel. Yes, the poetic art will change but possibly in ways that bring it closer to Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Milton, who understood how to bring richly complex poetry off the page without losing anything on it, than to the typographic traditions of Modernism. But there are surely solutions to this artistic challenge that we cannot imagine at the moment. The problem won’t be finding an audience. The challenge will be writing well enough to deserve one. Even if there are fewer readers, people will be listening."

Jeg er sikker på, at den kommende Shakespeare for vores tid findes i 8210-området, og når nu Århus så gerne vil være europæisk kulturhovedstad i 2017, så opret dog en forfatterskole i Århus V. Jeg kommer gerne og giver et nap eller rap med.