Thing poem

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The thing poem is a type of poem that has been clearly pronounced since the second half of the 19th century . Subjects of a thing poem are living and lifeless objects, works of art, situations or processes. These things are recorded in a distant and objectified manner, i.e. without an explicit subjective interpretation. In a thing poem, the lyrical I usually takes a back seat, with the poem claiming to express the interior and essence of the object as if the thing were speaking about itself . The term "thing poem" was coined in 1926 by the Germanist Kurt Oppert .

definition

A thing poem not only has the claim - through a purely objective and self-sufficient representation of the objective world - to copy or reflect things, but rather special perceptual achievements should be expressed through linguistic means. The principle of Rilke's poetry is to a certain extent the transformation of the outside into an inside. Inner experiences made in the encounter with things also flow into a thing poem. This creates a tension between the object and the subject, between imaginative view and fidelity to the object, and between symbolic and realistic representation. On the one hand, the subject of the thing poem is a thing and on the other hand the external form of a thing poem also refers to its subject.

The term "thing poem" comes from Kurt Oppert's study Das Dinggedicht (1926) . Other names, such as "art poem" by Clemens Heselhaus , could not prevail. "Object poem" is the English equivalent found by Sandbank in 1985.

However, in her introduction to Rilke, Käte Hamburger emphasizes that the concept of the thing poem is not very specific and therefore thing poems are often not recognizable as such.

history

Rainer Maria Rilke is considered to be the creator of the modern thing poem around 1900. Even the poets of Parnasse around 60 years before Rilke created object-oriented, descriptive poetry in France. This group of poets also influenced the symbolism with which the modern thing poem is related. In symbolism , the image tends to take on a life of its own and to become a symbol or thing. In the first decade of the 20th century a similar movement emerged in America, namely imagism , in which there was a tendency to view the "thing" as a "thing"; H. isolating an image and revealing its essence.

For his part, Rilke takes the decisive step from symbol to poetic thing in the New Poems (1907/08). His poems do not allow any symbolic interpretation that can be detached from things.

The sculptor Auguste Rodin had an important influence on Rilke's poetry .

Other important representatives of thing poetry are, for example, Eduard Mörike or Conrad Ferdinand Meyer .

Examples

Well-known examples are:

Web links

literature

  • Bolterauer, Alice: To the things. The epiphany thing experience at Musil, Rilke and Hofmannsthal. Praesens Verlag, Vienna, 2015.
  • Green R. / Cavanagh C. / Cushman S. / Ramazani J. / Rouzer P., The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 2012.
  • Hamburger, Käte, Rilke: an introduction, Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, 1976.
  • Lamping, Dieter, The lyrical poem: Definitions of theory and history, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1989.
  • Müller, Wolfgang G. "Dinggedicht" in: Fricke, H. / Grubmüller, K. / Müller, JD, Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1997-2003, Volume I.
  • Swales, Martin, “Between Modernism and Postmodernism? Thoughts on Rilke's (so-called) thing poems "in: Stevens, Adrian / Wagner, Fred (eds.), Rilke und die Moderne: London Symposium, IUDICIUM Verlag, Munich, 2000.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Müller, Wolfgang G. "Dinggedicht" in: Fricke, H. / Grubmüller, K. / Müller, JD, Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1997 - 2003, Volume I, p. 366f.
  2. ^ Lamping, Dieter, Das lyrische Gedicht: Definitions for Theory and History, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1989, p. 158.
  3. ↑ Fricke, H. / Grubmüller, K. / Müller, JD, Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1997 - 2003, Volume I, p. 367.
  4. ↑ Fricke, H. / Grubmüller, K. / Müller, JD, Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1997 - 2003, Volume I, p. 367.
  5. ^ Hamburger, Käte, Rilke: an introduction, Ernst Klett Verlag, Stuttgart, 1976, p. 28.
  6. ↑ Fricke, H. / Grubmüller, K. / Müller, JD, Reallexikon der deutschen Literaturwissenschaft, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, 1997 - 2003, Volume I, p. 367f.
  7. ↑ Encyclopedia of Poetry and Petics, pp. 193f.