Na hraniciach poézie

The article discusses the diversity of understanding about the category of poetry at the backdrop of the tension between substantial definitions of poetry (and the lyric) and functional and sociological approaches to literature. After addressing the limitations of Jonathan Culler’s construction of the identity of the lyric, it summarises Miroslav Červenka’s views on what constitutes poetry in an era when metre, rhyme, and other formal elements are no longer operative with regards to defining poetry. Subsequently, it provides a short discussion of sociological approaches to the study of literature in the context of other social phenomena (Pierre Bourdieu, Bruno Latour) and lists a few cases which demonstrate the way literary fame was evidently consciously created by actors and groups in the literary field (Walt Whitman, Thomas Stearns Eliot, Emily Dickinson). In the final sections, the article briefly mentions several similar examples from post-1989 Slovak poetry, addresses the ways in which modern and contemporary poetry crosses various boundaries, and introduces the articles included in this special issue of Slovenská literatúra .