more overt. The use of the first person can be extensive and may be used
as a way of breaking out of the more depersonalised essay form.
An example of a fictocritical approach to the essay is Charles Bernstein’s
poem–essay, ‘Artifice of Absorption’:
Example 9.6
The reason it is difficult to talk about
the meaning of a poem—in a way that doesn’t seem
frustratingly superficial or partial—is that by
designating a text a poem, one suggests that its
meanings are to be located in some ‘‘complex’’ be-
yond an accumulation of devices & subject matters.
A poetic readin g can be given to any
piece of writing; a ‘‘poem’’ may be understood as
writing specifically designed to absorb, or inflate
with, proactive—rather than reactive—styles of
reading. ‘‘Artifice’’ is a measure of a poem’s
intractability to being read as the sum of its
devices & subject matters. In this sense,
‘‘artifice’’ is the contradiction of ‘‘realism’’, with
its insistence on presenting an unmediated
(immediate) experience of facts, either of the
‘‘external’’ world of nature or the ‘‘internal’’ world
of the mind; for example, naturalistic
representation or phenomenological consciousness
mapping. Facts in poetry are primarily
factitious.From ‘Artifice of Absorption’ (Bernstein 1992, pp. 9–10)In this opening extract, Bernstein starts to map out ways in which to talk
about a form of poetry which breaks through conventions of realism and self-
expression. The piece is in many respects prosaic because it expounds ideas in
full sentences. But the line breaks give it a more poetic feel, and accentuate
certain rhythmical qualities which would not be palpable in the same way if
it was written in prose. This poem–essay also mixes informal and theoretical
language. So phrasing like, ‘The reason it is difficult to talk about/the meaning
of a poem—in a way that doesn’t seem/frustratingly superficial or partial’
is informal, and has a strong speaking quality. On the other hand, from
the sentence ‘‘‘Artifice’’ is a measure of a poem’s/intractability to being read
as the sum of its/devices & subject matters’, to the end of the passage, the
language is much more theoretical and technical.
206 The Writing Experiment