Collana | Biblioteca di Rassegna iberistica
Volume 40 | Monografia | The Poetry Research of J.V. Foix (1918-1985)

The Poetry Research of J.V. Foix (1918-1985)

Knowledge Through Likenesses in the Avant-Garde

open access | peer reviewed

Sergi Castella-Martinez - Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Espanya - email

Abstract

This book offers a comprehensive interpretation of the literary and journalistic works of the poet J.V. Foix (1893-1987), one of the most original voices of the Iberian avant-gardes, focusing on his poetics and communication of knowledge. Early in his life, this active arbiter of taste and experimental writer of prose poems described his endeavor as a ‘poetry research’. He sought independence from all isms and wrote classicizing sonnets, oneiric oneiric poems, and fictional chronicles. He despised bourgeois art and rejected art’s subjection to passing aesthetic and political trends. His poetic and ethical commitment was to ‘living reality’, which he claimed to share with artists of all eras and with the best poets of his time. The monograph critically assesses Foix’s articulation of a realist poetology. This clarifies his position in the fragmentary panorama of the avant-garde and revises traditional surrealist readings of his works. Rather than establishing a separate poetic reality accessible via dualistic or idealistic modes of thought, his obscure metaphors and inconclusive narrations stage the impossibility of such a detachment. Instead, poetic objects, consistently considered as ‘likenesses’, are identified as constituent elements of a practice of accumulation of fragments. These likenesses lead him – and us – to an ever-renewing adventure toward the encounter with the common and the unbelievable alike. Foix’s research, in prose, verse, and essay, is a tireless exercise in the embracement of actual plurality with aesthetic pluralism, which informs his views on culture, politics, and religion. The book appeals to both students and researchers of the European avant-gardes, and especially to literary critics and aesthetics scholars interested in modern, artistic and essayistic poetics of knowledge.

Keywords JV Foix • Literary criticism • Literary journalism • Realism and the avant-garde • Josep Vicenç Foix • Modern poetry • Poetics of knowledge • Literature and religion

Copyright © 2025 Sergi Castella-Martinez. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Abbreviations
26 Maggio 2025

1 Introduction
26 Maggio 2025

2 • Foix’s Fragmentary Quest for Total Knowledge
26 Maggio 2025

3 • From Images of Darkness to Perennial Twilight: Gertrudis
26 Maggio 2025

4 • A Poetics of Accumulation of Likenesses
From the “Notes on the Sea” to the Stone Poems
26 Maggio 2025

5 • A Helpless Desire of Unity: Alone, and Mourning
26 Maggio 2025

6 • “Some Considerations” on the Poetic Standpoint
26 Maggio 2025

7 • Conclusion: Realistic Commitment
26 Maggio 2025

DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_book_755
dc.creator	Castella-Martinez Sergi
dc.title	The Poetry Research of J.V. Foix (1918-1985). Knowledge Through Likenesses in the Avant-Garde
dc.type	Monografia
dc.language.iso	en
dc.description.abstract	This book offers a comprehensive interpretation of the literary and journalistic works of the poet J.V. Foix (1893-1987), one of the most original voices of the Iberian avant-gardes, focusing on his poetics and communication of knowledge. Early in his life, this active arbiter of taste and experimental writer of prose poems described his endeavor as a ‘poetry research’. He sought independence from all isms and wrote classicizing sonnets, oneiric oneiric poems, and fictional chronicles. He despised bourgeois art and rejected art’s subjection to passing aesthetic and political trends. His poetic and ethical commitment was to ‘living reality’, which he claimed to share with artists of all eras and with the best poets of his time. The monograph critically assesses Foix’s articulation of a realist poetology. This clarifies his position in the fragmentary panorama of the avant-garde and revises traditional surrealist readings of his works. Rather than establishing a separate poetic reality accessible via dualistic or idealistic modes of thought, his obscure metaphors and inconclusive narrations stage the impossibility of such a detachment. Instead, poetic objects, consistently considered as ‘likenesses’, are identified as constituent elements of a practice of accumulation of fragments. These likenesses lead him – and us – to an ever-renewing adventure toward the encounter with the common and the unbelievable alike. Foix’s research, in prose, verse, and essay, is a tireless exercise in the embracement of actual plurality with aesthetic pluralism, which informs his views on culture, politics, and religion. The book appeals to both students and researchers of the European avant-gardes, and especially to literary critics and aesthetics scholars interested in modern, artistic and essayistic poetics of knowledge.
dc.relation.ispartof	Biblioteca di Rassegna iberistica
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/978-88-6969-924-5
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.issued	2025-05-26
dc.dateAccepted	2025-02-13
dc.dateSubmitted	2024-11-07
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/it/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-924-5/
dc.identifier.issn	2610-8844
dc.identifier.eissn	2610-9360
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-6969-928-3
dc.identifier.eisbn	978-88-6969-924-5
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item.fulltext	with fulltext
item.grantfulltext	open
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	JV Foix
dc.subject	Josep Vicenç Foix
dc.subject	Literary criticism
dc.subject	Literary journalism
dc.subject	Literature and religion
dc.subject	Modern poetry
dc.subject	Poetics of knowledge
dc.subject	Realism and the avant-garde
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