Neohelicon
Volume/Issue:
Volume 39: Issue 2
Writing in secret: kabbalistic language mysticism and messianic teleology in lettrism
Author:
Sami Sjöberg University of Helsinki, Eerikinkatu 33 A 19, 00180 Helsinki, Finland

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Pages:
305–319
Online Publication Date:
25 Jun 2012
Publication Date:
01 Dec 2012
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11059-012-0143-z
Keywords:
Lettrism; Secrecy; Kabbalah-influenced art theory; Mysticism; Messianism; Isidore Isou
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Abstract  

The article addresses the influence of Jewish mysticism, Kabbalah, and messianism in the avant-garde movement lettrism. The poetic experiments of Jewish avant-gardists were often influenced by Kabbalah and this study focuses on the theme of secrecy and its manifestations in writing. Lettrism adopts the elements of the so-called kabbalistic secret writing, which resembles written language but is fundamentally opaque. The secret thus hidden is at once linguistic and ontological. Therefore, the secret is here analysed both as a medial and an ontological opening, which dispel the dualisms recurring in rational modes of thinking. Hence, the secret appears as a manifestation of a cognitive void. Even though the secret cannot be known, it resides at the temporal limits of the phenomenal world and includes a teleological vector. This vector implies that the secret is entwined in a messianic promise according to which language will eventually signify and mediate meaning.

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Cover Neohelicon
Neohelicon
Print ISSN:
0324-4652
Online ISSN:
1588-2810

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Neohelicon
Language English
Size B5
Year of
Foundation		 1973
Volumes
per Year		 1
Issues
per Year		 2
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
CH-6330 Cham, Switzerland Gewerbestrasse 11.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 0324-4652 (Print)
ISSN 1588-2810 (Online)

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