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/lp/de-gruyter/elements-in-poetic-space-a-cognitive-reading-qdD0qveNJK
- Publisher
- de Gruyter
- Copyright
- © 2013 by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co.
- ISSN
- 2235-2066
- eISSN
- 2235-2066
- DOI
- 10.1515/cogsem.2008.2.spring2008.129
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
Per Aage Brandt & Joh n Hobbs Elements in Poetic Space: A cognitive reading In this article we compare in two well-known poems the represen- tation and function of space as experienced and imagined by hu- man minds. According to Larsen (1996) and Brandt (1995), hu- man representations manifest distinct but connected versions of an imaginary space, which unfolds canonically into three phenom- enologically basic forms: the bio-imaginary, the socio-imaginary, and the phantasmic imaginary. The poems lead us to study this unfolding in a stepwise process directly related to their emotional meaning. We show that the general existential and metaphysical meaning of events and states in the textual content is linked to the evaluative morphologies of these spaces and versions of subjective embodiment. The guiding principle is that experienceable spaces are articulated by the natural elements into contrasts between proximal and distal sections, and that the bodily experience of 'near' and 'far' is further connected to thymic oppositions of eu- phoric and dysphoric values assigned to figurative contents. The spatial contrast between polar element oppositions of water (prox- imal) and air (distal), or implications thereof, appears to be partic- ularly important in poetry. The inquiry into the semantics of
Journal
Cognitive Semiotics – de Gruyter
Published: Mar 1, 2008