“The adventure of formal poetry” [1946], translated by Jeff Rider

Abstract

This is the first ever English-language translation of a lecture delivered by the Belgian medievalist Robert Guiette, then working at the University of Ghent, at the beginning of 1946. Entitled “L’aventure de la poésie formelle”, and together with “D’une poésie formelle en France au Moyen Age”, this was one of Guiette’s most influential pieces, presenting his ideas – that announced those of Paul Zumthor some decades later – about a medieval poetry based on a formal aesthetics.