Bernard Heidsieck: from the sound poetry to the poetry of everydayness

Abstract

Sound poetry presents a particular development in French contemporary poetry. This article aims at positioning it in the context of contemporary poetry –especially avant-garde poetry– and at explaining the role played by Bernard Heidsieck, a central poet of sound poetry. We know well that sound poetry derived from the artistic movement of lettrism and that it received the influence of this movement’s leader, Isidore Isou. Certainly, we can easily find a theoretical resemblance between the sound poetry of François Dufrêne, who participated in the movement, and the phonetic poetry of Isou. But Bernard Heidsieck, having nothing to do with the movement, referred to a poet: Antonin Artaud. The present article focuses on the fundamental difference between the poetics of Heidsieck and the previous sound poetry, in order to clarify Artaud’s influence as contrasted to the influence exerted by Isou.