The next WOLEC-session will take place on 18 December at 12:00 in room 5C402. Rachele Gusella will be presenting her research project in a 40-minute lecture entitled “”Every good artist makes their audience uncomfortable”: Street poetry as an expression of the political and social crisis in Western Europe.” Subsequently, we have 20 minutes left for questions and discussion. The presentation is in English.
Rachele Gusella is a MA-student at VUB who is preparing a PhD project with prof. Ann Peeters and dr. Andrea Penso. The abstract can be found at the bottom of this e-mail.
Sandwiches will be provided. Please confirm your attendance before 12 December by emailing Carolien Van Nerom.
ABSTRACT – Rachele Gusella – 18 December (12:00)
“Every good artist makes their audience uncomfortable”
Street poetry as an expression of the political and social crisis in Western Europe.
Over the last decade, street art has been increasingly accepted and studied by academic institutions. Nonetheless, street poetry or poetic assault, a specific declination of street art, have often been neglected. Indeed, a very small number of scholars discuss street poetry, a widespread artistic phenomenon that consists of the insertion of poetic compositions within the urban space.
This project aims to break new ground on the contemporary perception of poetry as a political expression. Most notably, the goal of this research is to investigate the link between the ongoing social and political crisis in Western Europe and the emergence of street poetry.
The research follows a methodological paradigm tailored to the originality of the subject. It combines different theoretical frameworks such as sociology and urban studies with visual and literary analysis. In addition, the project demands a certain amount of field work and the use of tools from digital humanities in order to collect and map data.
The hypothesis that this research tests is the presence of a relation between social crisis and poetry, where poetry is conceived of as revolution, subversion and hope.