THE LIVING BODY OF LANGUAGE: PRACTICAL-THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON THE “SPARGĂ” AND “LEOPARDĂ” LANGUAGES OF NINA CASSIAN AND VIRGIL TEODORESCU

Abstract

This contribution, starting from the studies of Giorgio Agamben, aims to highlight the peculiarity of two poetic languages invented by Nina Cassian and Virgil Teodorescu: the “spargă” language and the “leopardă” languages. The “spargă” and “leopardă” languages, developed during the surrealist period in Bucharest, embody the intrinsic dynamism of language. On the one hand, they reflect the multiplicity and original complexity of poetic language, where meanings are manifold and semantic closure is not definitive. On the other hand, these two fantastic languages highlight the pulsional heterogeneity underlying culture itself, suggesting that the truth of things does not directly coincide with what is explicitly said, but rather requires an act of translation
and interpretation by the subject. Moreover, these two experimental idiolects can also be interpreted as poetic explorations that challenge the normative structures of the symbolic order, introducing elements of the semiotic that materially express the unconscious in art. The connection with Lacan’s “lalangue” is evident in their common focus on the pre-linguistic and affective dimensions of language, which transcend the limitations of ordinary communication.