Affectieve ideeënpoëzie: Over kennis in de gedichten van Rozalie Hirs en Anne Carson

The Dutch Rozalie Hirs and Canadian Anne Carson are two contemporary poets whose poetry centres on a discursive or conceptual questioning of ideas. Yet little scholarly attention has been paid to this epistemological aspect of their work. This article therefore addresses how their poetry deals with knowledge and which strategies are used to this end. First, the relationship between knowledge and poetry is explored. Building on examples from Carson’s Glass and God (1998) and Hirs’s oneindige zin (2021), amongst other works, the article then examines what kind of engagement with knowledge such forms of poetry engender and in what ways. Finally, the comparative analysis suggests that an erotic epistemology, focused on a desire for knowledge, lies at the heart of Hirs’s and Carson’s poetry. To conclude, the notion of an affective poetry of ideas is proposed.