Abstract
Between Poem, Happening and Performance: Jiří Kolář’s “Destatic
Poetry”
The article concentrates on the inter-relations between poetry, happening and performance designed as worked out in the writings of the Czech poet Jiří Kolář. His poetic book Instructions for use calls for a new form of reception in insisting on the new experiences, perceptions and discoveries on the reader’s part. The poem sets forth scenarios of happenings or performances; and poetry begins to function like spectacle. Kolář named this kind of literary art “destatic poetry”. The poem becomes transformed into a performative act, affecting the reader’s identity.