The Poetics of Norbert Elias’s Fantasy and Reality

This paper combines an interest in Norbert Elias's poetry with poetic inquiry and data animation to re-examine key themes of the fantasy of reality as outlined in the 1960s Young Work Project. The paper briefly, outlines Elias's approach to fantasy and reality as recorded in the Young Worker Project archived materials, before considering Elias's approach to poetry. Using data animation, the worker project's original responses are then presented as five poems. The paper concludes by reflecting on the value of presenting data poetically.