Functions of figurativity for the narrative in lyric poetry – with a study of English and German poetic epitaphs from the 17th century

Abstract

Lyric poetry is a genre where discourse types such as description, argumentation, contemplation and narrative can occur together, though in varying combinations. During the last two decades, research has been devoted to the question of how to describe and to study such use of narrativity in lyric poetry. As Hühn (2007) puts it, ‘poetry can profitably be analysed on the basis of narratological categories’. However, this article argues that such a narratological analysis can never replace the traditional lyric analysis. The aim of this article is to combine the means of classical lyric analysis and narratological toolboxes with those of the new rhetorical narratology, in order to explore the impact of figurativity (i.e. micro-narrative stylistic characteristics on the ‘ discours level’ of the poem) on the ‘ histoire level’ (or the level of the enounced, Müller-Zettelmann, 2002) and on the reader of the poetic text in question. As an example, I will study English and German poetic epitaphs from the 17th century, because this early sub-genre of lyric poetry provides enough distance from a restrictive mainstream-romantic understanding of poetry and, at the same time, shows a high degree of figurativity with complex functions. In these texts, figurative elements such as synecdoche and metonymy create ‘discourse events’ at the level of enunciation (with the ‘lyrical I’ as the agent of a decisive change in consciousness or attitudes), but in some cases figurative elements even create (decisive changes that ‘the reader is meant to perform’, Hühn, 2007) that steer the reader’s mental construction of the poem’s ‘story world’, as a key aspect of the text’s narrativity.

Nuevos Enfoques Teóricos Para El Estudio De La Poesía Lírica

“…Esta internacionalización del enfoque narratológico se refleja también en estudios como el de Ludmila Comuzzi (2016), que aborda la problemática de la narratividad de la poesía lírica desde la ciencia cognitiva o Sonja Klimek (2013), quien estudia la figuratividad (en tanto que elementos micro-narrativos de estilo) en la poesía lírica; así como en su aplicación a otras literaturas, además de las ya mencionadas, como por ejemplo la coreana (Yong Ho Choi, 2008).…”

If Cemeteries Could Talk … A Discourse-Analytical Analysis of Epitaphs

“…Several papers on epitaphs focus on tomb inscriptions from centuries ago: Vovelle's (1980) material includes 750 epitaphs from the period 1660 to 1831, and Klimek (2013) examines English and German epitaphs from the 17th and 18th centuries. Barry (2008) combines two text types in her analysis of British 18th-century obituaries and epitaphs.…”

“…The need for some literary or metaphoric expression no longer in the form of biblical citations (which were sometimes added as an extra item, a practice that became widespread in the nineteenth century) evidenced the changed attitudes toward death among a particular elite who could afford the luxury of personal expression and had ceased to have the village pastor prepare their texts. (Vovelle, 1980, p. 541, our underlining) Also, Klimek's (2013) material contains figurative language, often used to avoid a direct mentioning of death.…”

“…One of the changes he detected was the addition of nonbiblical literary and metaphorical elements: The need for some literary or metaphoric expression no longer in the form of biblical citations (which were sometimes added as an extra item, a practice that became widespread in the nineteenth century) evidenced the changed attitudes toward death among a particular elite who could afford the luxury of personal expression and had ceased to have the village pastor prepare their texts. (Vovelle, 1980, p. 541, our underlining)Also, Klimek’s (2013) material contains figurative language, often used to avoid a direct mentioning of death.One could compile a long list of examples of poetic epitaphs in which the process of dying is synecdochically replaced with another process that is indeed part of dying, but in itself less drastic, more ordinary and, taken on its own, maybe even reversible. (p. 223)The use of metaphors is a well-exploited topic in research on death memorial discourse.…”

Lyrik und Autobiographik

“…Hier wird typischerweise die mentale Repräsentation der offenkundig fiktiven Sprechsituation getriggert, in der der Tote aus dem Grab heraus einen vorübergehenden Wanderer anspricht (vgl Segebrecht 1978, Braungart 1997, Klimek 2013…”