Henri Meschonnic

Henri Meschonnic, born in Paris in 1932, is author of over sixty books. A professor of linguistics at Université de Paris VIII from 1969-1997, Meschonnic’s work pushes toward a radical critique and opening up of a theory of rhythm as a political poetics which refuses the operative directives of enclosed systems of thought and meter. Among his most noted publications are Les Cinq Rouleaux—Le chant des chants, Ruth, Comme ou Les Lamentations, Paroles du Sage, Esther: the 5 books of the Old Testament—(Gallimard 1970), Pour la poétique (Gallimard 1970), Critique du rhythme, Anthropologie historique du langage(Verdier 1982), and a collection of essays, Dans la bois de la langue (Laurence Teper 2008). Meschonnic died in Villejuif, France in 2009.