Wittgenstein, Kraus, and Valéry

This book attempts to establish a paradigm for the way language works - that is, means and creates meaning - in contemporary Western poetry. The model is developed from a rereading of Ludwig Wittgenstein's theory of language; a rereading that is complemented with Karl Kraus's conception of language creation and Paul Val ry's theories of poetry and language. The implications of the paradigm are then explored from several perspectives: the process of writing and reading; the mechanisms of language combination; the ideational content of its crystallizations (meanings); and their materiality as linguistic objects. As a result, the paradigm allows us to understand the philosophical import of poetry as a form-of-life inextricably attached to the signifying mechanisms of language.