Providing a mix of theory and poetry

Blending the academic and the absurd, Jed Rasula, a professor at York College in Canada, and Steven McCaffrey, a professor at Canada's Queens University, presented their co-edited publication, Imagining Language, on Tuesday night at the Kelly Writers House. The two took turns reading their poetry, describing the anthology's production and explaining their theories of language to the 25 Penn students, staff and Philadelphia residents in attendance. The anthology, which was released 1 1/2 years ago to widespread academic acclaim, is a collection of language experiments from the last 3,000 years. Rasula described the work as "a huge gathering of empirical data about language." Since its release, the anthology has become a popular tool for exploring language theory -- the relationship between language and meaning -- and for teaching language all across academia. The authors said their book's success can be attributed to the wide range of subjects it addresses. Indeed, the anthology combines sociology, linguistics, literature and phenomenology in an exhaustive examination of the way in which language has evolved over time. "There was a really positive response from inside the institution, largely because it resists being pigeon-holed," McCaffrey said. "This was a project that could not be aimed at any one constituency." But, despite the project's breadth and intellectual focus, the work is considered approachable by its readers -- as are its editors. In their readings and published works, both authors maintain a degree of playfulness. "The distinction between something either serious and world-building or something humorous is not such an important one in a lot of our work," Rasula said. "A lot of this reflects things that happen by accident with language, and that can be funny." Rasula said the notion for the project developed when he was working for Ripley's Believe It or Not -- a company best known for its wax museums around the world -- on extraordinary uses of language, which perhaps set a precedent for the tone the work would later take. Though the audience laughed occasionally and seemed to appreciate many of the authors' absurd examples, the presentation did not lose its academic focus. The lighthearted and amusing aspects of the presentation, such as the poems of meaningless mutterings and nasal noises, were generally illustrative of more theoretical and serious notions on language. McCaffrey said their work on imaginative languages is celebrated for encouraging a re-introduction to language, one that could soon bear serious academic fruit. "Randomness in language can precipitate a completely different, and sometimes more productive and enlightening, relationship with language," McCaffrey explained.