Combinatory Poetics

Chapter two of “Electronic Literature” discusses Combinatory Poetics, which Scott Rettberg states is the oldest genre of electronic literature and is connected to experimental writing traditions through Dada, Surrealism, and Oulipo. These all focus on elements of random and/or generative art and literature. It is a dualism. This is particularly apparent in Dadaism. Rettberg explains that Surrealism sort of came from Dada, but not really. He states “surrealists were less interested in the concept of “anti-art” and more in the relation between art, nonconformity, and  the subconscious”. Oulipoan writing is slightly different from Dada and Surrealism because Rettberg states “Oulipoan writing is generative as a result of its strict adherence to the formal rules that guide its creation”. Overall, combinatory poetics seemed to be a very unfamiliar and chaotic artform until Rettberg explained that mad libs were a form of cominatory writing practices.

I found Dadaism the most interesting, because it was the most familiar to me. I have a few friends who work in art in this way and I vaguely remember learning about the duality the Dadaist reflect in a seventh grade art class I took in middle school. At first, I found Dadaism very confusing because it appears contradictory, but after reading through Rettberg’s writing a few times and doing some of my own research I realized it was probably my favorite kind of combinatory poetry that this chapter focused on. I wanted to find a physical depiction of Dadaist artwork to compare it to other works of art from the twentieth-century, so I found a sculpture done by Raoul Hausmann from 1920 called “The Spirit of Our Time”. The artwork is made of a hatmaker’s head bust, covered in various tools such as a ruler and typewriter wheel. Artfactory.com states that “With his eyes deliberately left blank, the ‘Spirit of Our Time” is a blind automaton whose blinkered attitude excludes any possibility of creative thought” (Artfactory.com). 

Sabrina Brown