Abstract:
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Joan Brossa and Guillem Viladot are indisputably the masters of Catalan visual poetry. Their books Poemes per a una oda and Poemes de la incomunicació, published in 1970, not only show the common traits of their work, but also mark a milestone in the development of this kind of poetry. This paper focuses on reader's reception through analyzing different types of responses to these authors' books. And it does so by considering: 1) the reception of their time, from comments by the authors and the Catalan press; 2) the critical examination of the formal, thematic and contextual elements of this works of poetry; and 3) the reception of contemporary non expert readers, which is done by showing the results of an exploratory research study. By contrasting the results from the analysis we conclude that there are many similarities in the meaning making process undertaken by the readers considered, especially between non expert readers and current critical examination. Readers try to make sense of the poems in rational ways, more than drawing from emotions and feelings. Nevertheless, they still show personal implication while explaining the poems. |