Agamben’s Universal Poetics

Throughout the development of Agamben’s ideas,it can be seen that there are always two threads of poetry and jurisprudence that are distributed in different fields but are internally interconnected.The reason for this is that Agamben placed poetry in a special position,transitioning poetry as a paradigm of language to the level of truth.For Agamben,poetry is a modern critique that can not only act within poetry but also in fields outside of poetry.The birth of key concepts such as "potential," "deactivation," " witness," " gesture," and “poiesis” are all closely related to Agamben’s exploration and termination of poetry.Therefore,comprehensive exploration is worthwhile to further delve into Agamben’s theories on poetry.“Stanza” not only Agamben’s first work dedicated to poetic study,but also an important concept within his theory of poetry.Agamben highlighted the aesthetic spatial features of the poetic act from the theory of illusion,and this spatial attribute greatly expanded the literary function of poetry,allowing its critical function to be successfully extended to the construction of truth in fables.At the same time,poetry’s fables also indicate that poetry itself contains possibilities for witnessing and redemption.Based on the unique relationship between fables and poetry,language becomes a key element in Agamben’s poetic theory.And based on the depersonalization of language in modern poetry,he shows how poetry becomes an object beyond human subjectivity and assumes universality.On this basis,poetry can be investigated from the perspective of potentiality as a linguistic apparatus to reveal how poetry brings forth its effects in space and how potentiality as a source of poetic meaning is the fundamental condition for poetry’s transcendent vitality.The infinite expansion of meaning brought about by the poetry-generating mechanism constructed by potentiality further prompted the development of Agamben’s universal poetic theory.Agamben discusses the discovery of potentiality when poetry ends from the perspective of the Messiah concept derived from Walter Benjamin and Saint Paul.In Agamben’s theoritical framework,poetry is able to end smoothly while preserving the poetic intention because potentiality is cut and compressed in the rhyme structure of poetry.This interpretation explains how poetry encounters a transformation of messianic time and gains a mechanism of salvation in this process,becoming the start of Agamben’s new ethics.Apart from the text of poetry itself,the poet is also an important component of poetry.Modern poets’ recognition and utilization of the small redemptive power allowed the development of broader poetic theories in modern poetry and ultimately shaped its evolution.From Dante to San Juan De La Cruz,from Rilke to H(?)lderlin and even Celan,Agamben found the contemporaneity lurking within modern poets’ poetic actions,which is why he sees the poet as a modern apostle.Thus,the poet constitutes a practical element of universal poetic theory.