‘De zon schijnt mooi’ De zon en de wereld van Arjen Duinker

Although literary theory and literary criticism seem to suggest otherwise, poetry uses a big variation of media besides the paper book. One of these media is the sound carrier. This thesis explores the production and reception of Dutch poetry on sound carriers and uses the case study De zon en de wereld by Arjen Duinker to present a multidisciplinary methodological framework for analysing poetry on sound carriers. When discussing recorded poetry, literary critics pay most attention to non-literary elements and use no fixed values or standards. De zon en de wereld by Arjen Duinker is an interesting case study because it consists of a book of poetry (“De wereld”) and a CD with recorded poetry (“De zon”). In 2005 this work won the VSB Poëzieprijs. Again, literary critics did not comment on or analyse the audio poetry. Many critics even ignored the CD while discussing the prizewinning work. The two main reasons for this ‘phonophobia’ amongst literary scholars are likely the hegemony of the written word in our present society and the lack of significant ‘tools’ to analyse poetry on sound carriers. This thesis presents a multidisciplinary methodological framework for analysing poetry on sound carriers by using Middleton’s methodology for analysing live poetry performances and expanding it with elements from theories on ‘oral poetry’ by Foley, ‘live poetry’ by Novak and ‘close listening’ by Bernstein. In order to make this ‘tool kit’ applicable to poetry on sound carriers the problems in Middleton’s parameters are solved by adding ideas on the relationship between live and recorded performances by Auslander, on the voice in music by Barthes and Gräbner, on the voice and modern media by Peters, on sound and the arts by Morris and Kahn and on sound and cognition by Tsur and James. By applying this new framework to the audio poem “De zon”, this thesis shows how a multidisciplinary methodological framework which takes the used medium into account, results in new insights into the poem itself, the collection of poetry to which it belongs, the poetic oeuvre which it is part of and the literary criticism which exists on the oeuvre. These insights would not have been gained by solely analysing Duinker’s poetry on paper and in live performances. In addition, the analysis provides insight into the differences between oral, written and recorded poetry and underlines the importance of taking these differences into account when discussing poetry.