Wittgenstein, Kraus, and Valery

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 Valery'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."