Theories of Lyric (original) (raw)
Related papers
2017
The general theory of lyric is a developing field of study. Approaches to lyric are, however, reputedly stuck in »the impasse of an impressionistic and narrowly formalistic critical debate on the genre« (Müller-Zettelmann/Rubik 2005, 8). Such claims may be paired with a call for raising the theory of lyric to higher levels (cf. Culler 2015, 2sq.; Zymner 2009, 8sq.; Gibson 2015, 1sq.), including the proposal of formulating, in analogy to the well-established field of narratology, a formal ›lyricology‹ (»lyricologie« or »Lyrikologie«, as it is called in French and German respectively; cf. Zymner 2009, 7-9; Rodriguez 2009; von Ammon 2015). More particularly, it has been suggested that parts of lyric theory should be reconceptualized with the help of narrative theories (cf. Müller-Zettelmann 2000, Müller-Zettelmann/Rubik 2005).
Form and Content, Again. Four Remarks on Lyric Theory
Journal of Literary Theory, 2017
The following statement suggests reconsidering recent debates on a theory of lyric in terms of form and content. Four aspects and issues of the ongoing debate are discussed. In a first step, it is necessary to establish the relation between authorial poetics and lyric theory, since it is often characterised by fuzzy boundaries. Secondly, in order to specify the problem of form in lyric theory, it is suggested to have a closer look at the performative in lyric practice. Another important aspect of form is the semantics of lyrical genres. Lyrical genres mark an area in which form and content are intertwined and in which aspects of the form itself become semantic. Finally, the author argues that we should discuss – if possible assisted by a didactics sensitive to literary texts – whether and how theoretical proposals could be transformed into a practice of teaching poetry.
¬The lyric theory reader : a critical anthology
2014
The Lyric Theory Reader collects major essays on the modern idea of lyric, made available here for the first time in one place. Representing a wide range of perspectives in Anglo-American literary criticism from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the collection as a whole documents the diversity and energy of ongoing critical conversations about lyric poetry. Virginia Jackson and Yopie Prins frame these conversations with a general introduction, bibliographies for further reading, and introductions to each of the anthology's ten sections: genre theory, historical models of lyric, New Criticism, structuralist and post-structuralist reading, Frankfurt School approaches, phenomenologies of lyric reading, avant-garde anti-lyricism, lyric and sexual difference, and comparative lyric. Designed for students, teachers, scholars, poets, and readers with a general interest in poetics, this book presents an intellectual history of the theory of lyric reading that has circulated both...
Lyric Poetry as a Narrative Speech Genre: On the dialogue between genre theory and cognitive science
Amsterdam International Electronic Journal for Cultural Narratology (AJCN). № 7-8 Autumn 2012 / 2014. , 2016
This study reconsiders the standard generic opposition between narrative and non-narrative poetry. Genre is conceived, in line with recent Russian scholarship, in analogy with the gene in biology, so that no matter what transformations and dislocations traditional genres might undergo over time, their structures, like organisms, do not fundamentally change but only mutate. What sets poetry off from prose is that the structures of the former are “noticeably measured and rhythmical.” Yet, poetry’s “fine-textured counterpoint of verse, syntax and narrative,” which takes the form of segmentivity, gapping and measurement/ countermeasurement at various textual levels (McHale), carries over, in Comuzzi’s proposal, to prose. Narrative texts, she argues, construct metric patterns and countermeasurements to these patterns through the various planes of point of view inscribed in the supra-phrasal units of narrative composition identified by Boris Uspenskij. Comuzzi completes her contribution to transgeneric narratology with a penetrating analysis of a corpus of lyric poems in which narrative scenarios, however discreet, are indissociable from the counterpoint of meter and rhythm. (From John Pier's Forword to the Journal issue)
Narratology and the study of lyric poetry
Literator, 2010
This article provides a brief discussion of the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the study of narrativity in lyric poetry. As part of the justification of studying narrative aspects of lyric poetry, reference is made to contemporary paradigms in postclassical narratology of which transgeneric narratology is one. The project titled, “Verse and narrative: narrative structures and techniques in lyric poetry”, from which the articles in this issue emanated, is described briefly by presenting the objectives of the research and by discussing the theoretical and historical implications of such a project. The theoretical part of the article concludes with a list of the preliminary findings. The article also serves as an introduction to this issue of “Literator”, which contains the contributions on English and Dutch texts to the project.
Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics, 2019
A Review of Prof. Jonathan Culler's 'Theory of the Lyric'.
The project : Verse and narrative : narrative structures and techniques in lyric poetry
Narratology and the study of lyric poetry This article provides a brief discussion of the theoretical and historical underpinnings of the study of narrativity in lyric poetry. As part of the justification of studying narrative aspects of lyric poetry, reference is made to contemporary paradigms in postclassical narratology of which transgeneric narratology is one. The project titled, "Verse and narrative: narrative structures and techniques in lyric poetry", from which the articles in this issue emanated, is described briefly by presenting the objectives of the research and by discussing the theoretical and historical implications of such a project. The theoretical part of the article concludes with a list of the preliminary findings. The article also serves as an introduction to this issue of "Literator", which contains the contributions on English and Dutch texts to the project. Opsomming Narratologie en die studie van liriese poësie Hierdie artikel bevat 'n saaklike bespreking van die teoretiese en historiese aspekte van die bestudering van narratiwiteit in liriese poësie. In die motivering van die geldigheid van so 'n ondersoek, word verwys na die dominante paradigmas in postklassieke narratologie, waarvan transgeneriese narratologie een is. Die navorsingsprojek, "Vers en verhaal: narratiewe
Cambridge Companion to World Literature, ed. B. Etherington and J. Zimbler, pp. 133-148, 2018