Towards a poetics of stutter: Semantic and syntactic deconstruction in saint john of the cross and stéphane mallarmé

Abstract

The present paper analyzes semantic and syntactic deconstruction in Saint John of the Cross and Stéphane Mallarmé, which is closely connected to the motif of stutter in both their works. It will be shown that, in each case, this motif describes language’s outlying district, an intermediate space between speech and silence, and an ongoing and simultaneous process of dissolution and manifestation that involves the poetic word on the one hand, and the transcendent signified (God in the case of Saint John, mainly the “Spirit” for Mallarmé) on the other.