Abstract

This article uses Jacques Réda's theory of poetic swing to show how the traditional metrical analysis of poetic rhythm might be updated to better reflect the rhythmic intricacies of contemporary French literary language. It begins by situating Jacques Réda's rhythmic practices with respect to the deconstructive theories of rhythm and subjectivity espoused by Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Henri Meschonnic. Using the concept of swing, Réda seeks to show why certain rhythmic patterns feel ‘right’ to him, and how they enable him to put his personal stamp on the French language as he seeks to show, like Lacoue-Labarthe and Meschonnic, that there is such a thing as a rhythmic ‘essence of the subject’.