TY  - JOUR
A1  - Roberts, Andrew Michael
A1  - Stabler, Jane
A1  - Fischer, Martin H.
A1  - Otty, Lisa
T1  - Space and pattern in linear and postlinear poetry empirical and theoretical approaches
JF  - European journal of English studies : official journal of the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE)
N2  - This article derives from two interdisciplinary research projects funded by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council, involving the application of psychological experimental techniques to the study of poetic form and reader response. It discusses the semantic and expressive effects of space and pattern in innovative forms of contemporary British and American poetry. After referring to some historical and theoretical contexts for these issues, the article analyses the results of experiments using eye-tracking, manipulations of text, memory tests and readers' recorded responses and interpretations. The first group of poems studied were lineated, with extended spaces within lines and displacement of lines from the left margin. Referring to a poem from Geoffrey Hill'sCanaan(1996), the authors show that such use of space may serve to articulate syntactical structures, but may also promote richer interpretation by encouraging cross-linear semantic connections. The second technique studied was the break from linear into postlinear poetry, as an initially lineated sequence shifts to pages of dispersed text. In readings of Susan Howe'sPythagorean Silence(fromThe Europe of Trusts, 1990), the authors detected more radical effects of space, shape and pattern, with associated consequences for interpretative strategies and aesthetic responses. Finally, the article discusses the potential for both mutual support and heuristic challenge between an empirical study of reader response, and a historical-theoretical approach as exemplified by Jerome McGann's interpretation ofPythagorean Silence.
KW  - psycholinguistics
KW  - postlinear poetry
KW  - space in poetry
KW  - visual form
KW  - eye-tracking
KW  - empirical aesthetics
KW  - reader response
KW  - Susan Howe
KW  - Geoffrey Hill
Y1  - 2013
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1080/13825577.2012.754967
SN  - 1382-5577
SN  - 1744-4233
VL  - 17
IS  - 1
SP  - 23
EP  - 40
PB  - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group
CY  - Abingdon
ER  -