Facing Loss and Death, Narrative and Eventfulness in Lyric Poetry. With contrib. by Goerke, Britta / Plooy, Heilna du / Schenk-Haupt, Stefan

TitleFacing Loss and Death, Narrative and Eventfulness in Lyric Poetry. With contrib. by Goerke, Britta / Plooy, Heilna du / Schenk-Haupt, Stefan
Publication TypeBook
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsHühn, P
Series TitleNarratologia
Volume55
PublisherDe Gruyter
CityBerlin, Boston
ISBN Number978-3-11-048633-9
Keywordseventfulness, Poetry analysis, sequentiality, transgeneric narratology
Abstract

Lyric poetry as a temporal art-form makes pervasive use of narrative elements in organizing the progressive course of the poetic text. This observation justifies the application of the advanced methodology of narratology to the systematic analysis of lyric poems. After a concise presentation of this transgeneric approach to poetry, the study sets out to demonstrate its practical fruitfulness in detailed analyses of a large number of English (and some American) poems from the early modern period to the present. The narratological approach proves particularly suited to focus on the hitherto widely neglected dimension of sequentiality, the dynamic progression of the poetic utterance and its eventful turns, which largely constitute the raison d'être of the poem. To facilitate comparisons, the examples chosen share one special thematic complex, the traumatic experience of severe loss: the death of a beloved person, the imminence of one’s own death, the death of a revered fellow-poet and the loss of a fundamental stabilizing order. The function of the poems can be described as facing the traumatic experience in the poetic medium and employing various coping strategies. The poems thus possess a therapeutic impetus.

URLhttps://www.degruyter.com/view/product/473871

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ENN is the European Narratology Network, an association of individual narratologists and narratological institutions. ENN aims to foster the study of narrative representation in literature, film, digital media, etc. across all European languages and cultures.