Mark Insingel · Lyrikline.org

photo © Willy Dee

* 03.05.1935, Lier, Belgium
lives in: , Belgium

Mark Insingel (1935) made his debut in 1963 and from the outset has written in an experimental style that has made a stand for social relevance. In a society focused solely on reproduction, autonomous literature forms the final refuge for the writer to create something unique.

Language is at the heart of Mark Insingel’s oeuvre. His writing is based on an idiosyncratic, creative relationship with language and existing forms of expression such as slogans, traditional proverbs and idiomatic phrases, which he undermines and in his unique way playfully and unexpectedly combines in varying settings to eek out new meanings. This attention to the aural and visual aspects of language led to PERPETUUM MOBILE (1969), the first volume of concrete poetry in the Dutch language, and Posters (1974).

The almost mathematical structure of his poems is created by means of the variegated and modulating way in which verses are repeated and juxtaposed, giving the impression that these poems originate from mathematical logic. Not only are individual poems structured in this manner; some books are also consciously conceived as ‘linguistic algorithms’. In Dat wil zeggen (In Other Words; 1975) the texts are generated from preconceived basic rules. Every third text recaptures a preceding text. Through this network of similarity and contrast a rhythm comes about that is elaborated upon with almost mathematical precision. Language thus becomes the place of choice to exist.

His consistently maintained predilection for the avant-garde has relegated Mark Insingel to the margins of the literary landscape, causing his work never to be fully appreciated. This has not stopped him from writing, however, and in 1990 his provisional collected poems were published, entitled In elkanders armen (In Each Other’s Arms). The recent minimalist love poems in Niets (Nothing; 2005), for which he received the Publieksprijs for best poetry volume, and in Iets (Something; 2007), nominated for the Herman de Coninckprijs, appear to have caught the attention of a younger generation of poetry readers.

Mark Insingel
Author

Poems

Mark Insingel
Author