Animating bodies : the sound poems of bpNichol
Date
2001
Authors
Emerson, Lori
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Abstract
As an antidote to the conspicuous absence of a criticism which speaks fully to the philosophical underpinnings of bpNichol 's sound poems, I approach Nichol's work with sound in a hypertextual format (http://web.uvic.ca/~emerson/index.htm) which is written largely in relation to Stanley Cavell's philosophical studies on language. Cavell explores the relation between language, world and philosophical skepticism in terms of Wittgenstein's notion of language games to make the claim that the skeptical impulse underlying philosophy's understanding of the nature of language and the world is one that deprives both of Iife. A primary line of thought in this thesis is that Cavell's call for us to begin returning words to their home language game is an act of healing and redemption in the face of skepticism, and thus can be aligned with bpNicbol' s belief in the therapeutic, life-giving aspect of language. Finally, this thesis has been written with a hypertext writing system in order to better take on Nichol's love of process, play and openness and in order to work against myself and my own tendencies towards a linear argument.