Wave to Particle, Particle to Wave: Towards a Quantum Theory of Poetry

Bénédicte Letellier

Roberta L. Burdette

Bénédicte Letellier

This chapter focuses on the concept of reality in Adonis’ poetry and the theoretical physics developed by Basarab Nicolescu. Do they conceive reality in the same way? In this brief comparison, I seek to show that, despite different languages, poetry and quantum physics tend towards the same realism, namely the deep conviction of a veiled Real manifesting itself under numerous faces. These two activities that aim to know and reflect reality are based on how we live our relationships with all forms and at all scales of life. Consequently, they depend on both the object as an absolute entity and the subject who lives it, that is, on the subject-object connection. Beyond this famous relativism which is not the only criterion for the quantum and poetic conception of reality, the main debate, which will be mine in this article, concerns the absolute existence of the objective reality and therefore the way to access and describe it.

R. March

Samira Mekibes Meza

Mark Rudman

Mark Rudman has been editor of Pequod Magazine for 10 years and is one of America's brilliant young poet-essayists. He has received numerous awards and a fellowship from the Poets, Essayists, and Novelists translation center. His essays have appeared in Best American Essays, 1991 and conversant essays, as well as American Poetry Review, The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, and the Times Literary Supplement. Mr. Rudman has published a book of criticism on Robert Lowell and two books of poetry, By Contraries and The Nowhere Steps. His poetry can be found in many magazines, including The New Yorker. Mr. Rudman lives in New York City where he teaches at Columbia University and New York University.