Ecritures, masques et voix : pour une poétique des chansons de Leonard Cohen et Bob Dylan

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Ecritures, masques et voix : pour une poétique des chansons de Leonard Cohen et Bob Dylan
Abstract
The author aims at assessing the specificity of the literary pleasures derived from the songs of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan. He contends that their art can be defined as the locus of three overlapping writing activities : inherently poetical texts are performed and rhythmically re-written by the performer's voice, while the songs are used by both artists to "write themselves" through the creation of numerous and competing personae. The author argues that close reading of the lyrics must therefore be supplemented by a "poetics of the voice" and a detailed analysis of the theatrics of their games of masks. He points out that while the stylistic approach to the lyrics reveals a thrust towards writerly openness and blends oral traditions and high poetry into original poetic idioms, the aesthetic and semantic uses of the artists' voices are just as elaborate. Therefore, the voices will be approached, in turn, as objects of pleasure, as instruments of writing and as complex signs used for pathos and self-parody or to inscribe a world-view at the sonic surface of the songs. Drawing on highly conceptualised notions (persona, posture/imposture...), the author's study of the artists' various masks isolate the mechanisms that allows Cohen and Dylan to perpetually construct and deconstruct their public image. These personal palimpsest of identities which constitutes the heart of their work fuel the songs' strong tonal ambiguity, merging confession and mystification, lyricism and irony. After thus establishing a specific poetics for the songwriters' work, the author re-assesses the literary impact of popular songs. In the process, he notes, the cultural weight of the high/low distinction and the ambiguous cultural status of both artists will have to be kept in mind, Dylan and Cohen being -- respectively -- a stowaway in and a deserter of high culture.
Type
PhD dissertation
University
Université Marc Bloch
Place
Strasbourg, France
Date
2004
# of Pages
493p.
Language
fr
Citation
Lebold, Christophe. “Ecritures, masques et voix : pour une poétique des chansons de Leonard Cohen et Bob Dylan.” PhD dissertation, Université Marc Bloch, 2004.
Find in a library
Permalink