“LAUGHING TO TEARS” OR HUMOUR IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY POLISH AND BELGIAN POÈMES EN PROSE

Abstract

Humour is rarely used in the poetic register. Yet it can be found in certain poems, for instance, in some prose poems. The aim of this article is to examine how humour operates and what role it plays in Polish and Francophone Belgian prose poetry of the twenty-first century. Ganowski analyzes and compares poems by Frédéric Saenen, Grzegorz Wróblewski, Christophe Van Rossom, Julia Szychowiak, Timotéo Sergoï, and Marcin Pierzchliński. The article also aims to identify the similarities and differences between the two literary traditions to explain the mechanics of humour and the intention behind its use in prose poems, drawing on, among others, Freudian and Baudelairean ideas on humour and laughter. This will help understand what humour allows these prose poems to express.