Adam R. Rosenthal, Poetics and the Gift: Reading Poetry from Homer to Derrida.

Adam R. Rosenthal's book, "Poetics and the Gift," challenges the Western poetic tradition by reframing it in terms of the concept of the gift. Rosenthal argues that the distinction between poiemata and poiesis must be rethought in relation to the gift in Derrida's philosophy. He explores the relationship between gift and poetry, showing how they both implode and explode. Rosenthal also examines the abandonment of poetry in Derrida's thinking once he begins thinking about the gift. He deconstructs the notion that poetry is only in some poem and argues that the gift's impossibility already determines heliopoetics from its inception. The book explores the fissures and the (im)possibility of the gift, poetry, and the poem itself. It also investigates the economies of the gift of poetry and its potential annihilation as it enters the market. Rosenthal's work is a sophisticated meditation on Derridean philosophy and its implications for literature and poetry. It offers a theory of poetry and a history of poetics that rely on the instability of their ontological status. [Extracted from the article]