Nanni Balestrini's poetry is invariably linked with the activities and premises of the "Gruppo '63," the neo-avant-garde circle of poets, writers, and literary critics who added an important chapter to the history of the twentieth-century Italian lyric. Acting on the conviction that language exists in an alienated and reified condition, and wishing to revive the concept of language and literariness within a social structure felt to be alienating and oppressive, Balestrini intends to broaden the discussion on language by advancing the view that it is no longer a mere instrument of artistic expression but its own object. In his technical experimentations, from verses built up through the device of collage, to mechanical poems generated by the artificial intelligence of a computer, Balestrini pays special attention to the disengagement of normal syntactical links as well as to the effects of spoken language. Activity in this area has come to...