Dr Jeff Barda awarded the 2021 Literary Encyclopaedia Book Prize

Dr Jeff Barda was awarded the 2021 Literary Encyclopedia Book Prize in the category ‘Literature in languages other than English’ for his monograph entitled Experimentation and the Lyric in Contemporary French Poetry (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

In this book, Dr Barda offers a new theoretical approach and historical perspective on the remarkable upsurge in creative poetic practices in France that have challenged traditional definitions of poetry and of the lyric.

Focusing on the work of Pierre Alferi, Olivier Cadiot, Emmanuel Hocquard, Franck Leibovici, Anne Portugal and Denis Roche, his book provides an analysis of the most influential poets in French poetry of the last few decades. It contextualizes the theoretical models that inform their investigations, analyzing them alongside the history of the avant-garde and the heated theoretical debates that have taken place over whether to continue or bring an end to the lyric. 

This monograph which derives from a PhD he completed at Trinity College Cambridge is 'endorsed by major scholars as a groundbreaking work that reshapes its field of study, “a truly brilliant book that provides the first full account we have of how French poetry has evolved in the course of the past half-century” (Marjorie Perloff) (…) is also pioneering in that it applies its extensive understanding of international theoretical and critical models to show their differences as well as correspondence with French poetic production.’ Read more here.

Jeff says:

“The field of experimental French poetry is one of the most vibrant and innovative in France today and yet it remains underexplored and understudied in academia. Experimental contemporary poetry may have the undeserved reputation for being elitist or lacking in relevance. In fact, it provides new ways of seeing the present and making sense of information overload in our hypermediated environment. I am pleased to be the recipient of this prize, and I hope that the book can contribute to a new dialogue between Anglophone and Francophone critics and readers."