Towards a Characterisation of Explicit Poetics. Elements of Communication, Functions and Typical Traits

Abstract

This work aims to characterise contemporary explicit poetics. Although the content of texts in which poets explain their own creation or specify key aspects of the literary process has been taken into account, there has not been any systematic study of the formal aspects of them. We present a characterisation of explicit poetics based on the elements of communication, functions and typical traits of these texts. We also suggests a classification of the most common formalisations of explicit poetics. To do this, a distinction has been set up between textual types related to a private context (diaries, private letters and notes) and to a public context (essays, conferences, speeches, prologues, epilogues, reviews, interviews, conversations, surveys, public letters, lists and poetics for anthologies).