âThe Rustling in the Trees Is / Not the Rustling in the Trees / It Is Your Voiceâ: Mystical Relationality and the Liquid Poetics of Postsecular Mourning in Joost Baarsâs Binnenplaats [Enclosure] (2017)

Tijl Nuyts

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Chapter 6 âThe Rustling in the Trees Is / Not the Rustling in the Trees / It Is Your Voiceâ

Mystical Relationality and the Liquid Poetics of Postsecular Mourning in Joost Baarsâs Binnenplaats [Enclosure] (2017)

In: Grief, Identity, and the Arts

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Tijl Nuyts

Tijl Nuyts
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 96â113

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004158719_009

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Abstract

Confronted with the heart attack of his wife, the Dutch poet Joost Baars (Â°1975) noticed that he was furious. Although atheist at the time, he realized that he involuntarily directed his fury to a transcendent entity he did not believe inâand yet simultaneously called out to. Grief-stricken, he thereby established a connection with what he conceived of as the âunnameable nameable,â a relation that he would characterize in interviews as quintessentially âmystical.â The significance of this mystical relation not only manifested itself on a personal, but also on a lyrical level: in Baarsâs first poetry collection, Binnenplaats [Enclosure] (2017), the poetic subject of the central cycle is equally confronted with the heart attack of its beloved and calls out to an elusive addressee. In public statements related to his debut, Baars has referred to this apostrophic relation between this You and the poetic subject as âmystical.â This contribution will study Baarsâs mystical use of apostrophe in relation to the collective and participatory confrontation with grief in early 21st-century Dutch poetry, and to the uses of âliquid religionâ in that context. To that end, I will study the apostrophic address in the first cycle of Binnenplaats in conjunction with the âmystical markersâ it employs, while also looking into Baarsâs self-presentation as a âmystical author.â These findings will be situated against recent ârelationalâ concerns in contemporary Dutch literature, showing how Baarsâ debut updates poetry for our postsecular times.

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Grief, Identity, and the Arts

A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Expressions of Grief

Series:Â Death in History, Culture, and Society, Volume: 1

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004158719

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 15 Nov 2022

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Front Matter

Part 1 Collective Religious Identities

Part 2 Personal Religious Identities

Part 3 National Identities

Part 4 Family Identities/The Inner Circle

Part 5 Social/Societal Identities

Part 6 Identities of a Genre/Artistic Identity

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Chapter 6 âThe Rustling in the Trees Is / Not the Rustling in the Trees / It Is Your Voiceâ

Mystical Relationality and the Liquid Poetics of Postsecular Mourning in Joost Baarsâs Binnenplaats [Enclosure] (2017)

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Grief, Identity, and the Arts

A Multidisciplinary Perspective on Expressions of Grief

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Chapter 6 âThe Rustling in the Trees Is / Not the Rustling in the Trees / It Is Your Voiceâ

Mystical Relationality and the Liquid Poetics of Postsecular Mourning in Joost Baarsâs Binnenplaats [Enclosure] (2017)