The essay presents a reflection on the prose poem in the contemporary world’s context. Examining texts by four writers which are representative of this genre - the English John Berger, the French Yves Bonnefoy, the North American Tom Whalen and the German Heiner Müller -, the author seeks to outline the main constitutive traits of this literary expression’s form, which in its diversity characterizes itself, in general, by the poetic expression of a extreme restlessness toward the experienced reality and by an acute self-consciousness of the language.
prose poem; contemporary world literature; poetry; language