Niet produceren en niet concurreren, maar lachen, spelen, lachen: Een voorstel voor een ecologische poëzieanalyse van Sybren Polet

Abstract

Signalling a need for new poetry interpretation models in Dutch literary scholarship, we propose an ecological – that is to say, an inclusive, complex and relation-based – approach of poetry. More specifically, this article focuses on the section ‘Illusie & illuminatie’ of Sybren Polet’s (1925-2015) eponymous poetry collection Illusie & illuminatie (1975). With an emphasis on the writing process (genetic criticism) and the political agency of the poems, the article interprets poetry as an active force in the world. Our close reading demonstrates the symbiosis of form and content in Polet’s poetry, his striving for openness, the creative tension between changeability, utopia and human action in the poems, and Polet’s poetic criticism of local policy.