chapter 3
Performance and the Poem
T
he term ‘performance poetry’ is now commonly used to
describe a presentation that may never be transcribed into
volume or a book. ‘Performance’ in this context indicates the inter-
action of poetry with its audience; the event may often be ephem-
eral and experiential, such as a slam poem or improvised talk. The
focus of this chapter is to consider how contemporary poetry may
‘perform’ in a plurality of senses. Drawing from poetic manifestos,
we can consider the poetry performance as a form of musical-
ity: poetry, as Charles Olson suggested, becomes a score for the
voice. Focusing on poets associated with cultural movements and
protest writing, poetry can also perform the demands of appeal-
ing to an audience and inciting change. Performance poetry in
this light allows for textures of call and response, humour, parody
and polyphony. While performance may emphasise a dramatic
component, in considering textual performance contemporary
poetry also ‘performs’ visually on the page – through experimental
typography. I consider the various ways that poetry may perform
or can be considered in Judith Butler’s formulation ‘performative’.
Approaching performance as the sonic or textual iteration of rhe-
torical gestures and personas enables a more nuanced considera-
tion of how identities are performed as processes of mobility and
change. Increasingly in both critical and poetic circles there has
been attention to ‘performance writing’ that places its focus upon
an investigation of the performance of language in different fi elds.