Deterritoriazing Poetry: Action Poétique and Banana Split as World-Periodical
(2026) Periodicals and the world — Location: Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Bruxelles (9.September.2026)
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- Founded in Marseille in the late 1950s, the journal Action poétique distinguished itself throughout its existence by its receptiveness to poetry from beyond French borders. Through thematic dossiers published over several decades, the journal introduced its readers to poetry from across the globe—from the Netherlands to Japan, Iran, Cuba, Portugal, Hungary, Brazil, and elsewhere. While the editors’ leftist political stance shaped editorial choices and interest in certain nations, the journal’s engagement with world poetry stemmed fundamentally from its core conviction: poetry constitutes a form of literary activity with agency in social reality. After briefly tracing this journal’s history and model, this paper examines how Action poétique inspired subsequent ventures, particularly the two journals edited by poet Liliane Giraudon (Banana Split and If) between the 1980s and 2000. Former member of Action poétique’s editorial board, Giraudon articulated her commitment to Brazilian poet Haroldo de Campos’s vision: “‘In the absence of an international proletariat, let us work toward an international poetariat’: establishing connections, exchanges... against certain forms of linguistic submission.” (Giraudon 2016) Drawing on literary sociology, this presentation would like to demonstrate how periodicals constitute poetic “worlds” in their own right. For Giraudon, Banana Split functioned as a “deterritorialized space, escaping the distributions of influence among established groups,” at a moment when French poetry found itself divided between “lyricists” and “formalists.” This paper will examine how openness to poetry in its international dimension enabled Giraudon's journals to escape this logic. Finally, from the perspective of print history and graphic design, Banana Split (like other periodicals) created its own visual world. Contributors participated in the journal’s making by submitting typescripts and arranging their own texts, which were then photocopied and integrated into rectangular frames. This approach yielded a distinctive aesthetic proposition, archiving and documenting each contributor's compositional practices. Far from mere layout affectation, this editorial decision embodied the journal’s commitment to preserving individual singularities.
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Cunescu, S. (2026, September 11). Deterritoriazing Poetry: Action Poétique and Banana Split as World-Periodical. Periodicals and the world, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Bruxelles. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/280146