Poetry Theory

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The poetry theory is a field of literary theory , which deals with the special features and characteristics of the poetry and the importance of lyrical texts in the literature is concerned.

The development of the theory of poetry in the narrower sense presupposes the existence of a clear concept of poetry and literary theory. The conception of poetry as the third literary genre alongside epic and drama in the sense of a systematic three-way division was first outlined in the Italian Renaissance by Trissino (GG Trissino, La Poetica , 1529); neither in antiquity nor in the Middle Ages nor in the early modern period is there a clear idea of ​​poetry as an independent genre.

Trissino's model was not adopted until the 17th century in England and in the 18th century in France and Germany. So z. B. J. A. Schlegel in his commented translation of Batteux's work Les beaux arts réduits à un même principe (1746) goes beyond its rule-poetic approach: For Schlegel, "lyrical poetry " is always an expression of "not imitated, but real feelings" (Ch. Batteux / JA Schlegel: Restriction of the fine arts to a single principle , 1751).

With the implementation of the conception of lyric poetry as a unified genre in Germany, the idea that poetry is the appropriate medium for the direct emotional expression of an author who is considered to be a genius is initially linked.

In contrast, AW Schlegel ( Letters on Poetry, Syllable Measure and Language, 1795/96 ) understands lyric poetry as an intensification or sublimation of natural poetry, which still serves entirely to express passions, into a rhythmically and melodically ordered, world-opening poetry.

For Hegel (GWF Hegel: Vorlesungen über die Ästhetik , 1935–38), lyrical subjectivity in turn absorbs the entire external world and enables a fulfilled inner world to "express oneself as inwardness."

Vischer (F.Th. Vischer, Ästhetik oder Wissenschaft des Schönen , 1846–57) exaggerates this Hegelian model to the rather irrationalistic formula that lyric poetry is "a selective ignition of the world in the 'subject'". This conception is not only reflected in contemporary knowledge of the manual, but also finds expression in Dilthey's concept of an internalization of the outside world, referred to as 'experience' (Dilthey: Das Erlebnis und die Dichtung , 1906). This concept is largely retained in the core of numerous theories of poetry of the 20th century (for example M. Kommerell : thoughts about poems , 1943, or E. Staiger : Grundbegriffe der Poetik , 1946).

The literary development of a theory of poetry in the narrower sense did not begin until the end of the 19th century, roughly at the same time as modern lyricalism in Germany ( Holz , George ). First of all, a deficiency is identified: There are hardly any “beginnings for a theory of lyric poetry” ( RM Werner : Lyrik und Lyriker , 1890). The thesis of such a deficiency has become a topos up to the present , for example in Warning (Rainer Warning: Lektüren romantischer Lyrik , 1997).

At the beginning of the 20th century, the “experiential poetics” was increasingly juxtaposed with the concept of the “ lyrical self ”, which according to Susman ( Das Wesen der moderne Lyrik , 1910) was “not an ego in the real empirical sense”, but rather “expression” and Is the "form" of an ego and therefore makes the author's "empirical ego" disappear straight away. Walzel ( Schicksale des lyrischen Ich , 1916) differentiates this position further, while theories that understand the lyrical ego as "a real and never a 'fictional' subject of experience and expression" ( K. Hamburger : Die Logic der Dichtung , 1957), fall behind.

This is countered by Schlaffer's provocative thesis that the “I” of the poem is “not the private property of its author, but the common property of its readers”; all poetry is therefore "structurally anonymous" (H. Schlaffer: Die Appropriation of Poems , 1995). Despite a few attempts to preserve this ambiguous term, the concept of the lyrical self is being replaced in today's literary or poetry theory by neutral terms such as “articulated self” or the like.

In the current discussion, different approaches of the poetry theory compete: According to the difference theory , poetry is characterized by “diverse grammatical deviations from everyday language ” ( H. Fricke : Norm und Deviation , 1981). In contrast, form theory sees lyric poetry characterized by its characteristic of being composed in verse ( KO Conrady : Kleines Plädoyer für Neutralität der Lyrik und Gedicht , 1994). The multi-component theory , on the other hand, refers to some characteristics of lyric texts that tend to appear frequently, such as brevity, artificiality and self-referentiality , which, however, are neither understood as necessary nor as exclusive characteristics of poetry (Eva Müller-Zettelmann: Lyrik und Metalyrik , 2000).

Through a combination of form theory and speech criterion, poetry is also understood as "individual speech in verse"; However, this position excludes from consideration all poems that are not monological , but detached from real communication situations and structurally simple (e.g. dialogue or dedication poems ) ( D. Lamping : Das lyrische Gedicht , 1989).

Another approach tries to combine form theory, pragmatic differentiation and a multi-component model by defining lyric poetry as a genre that encompasses all poems, i.e. every oral or written speech in verse form that does not contain any role play or no scenic representation or a such is laid out and has other frequently occurring but not absolutely necessary features (D. Burdorf: Introduction to poem analysis , 1995).

The narrative conception , on the other hand, understands lyric poetry as a "form of reduction" of narration and attempts to identify "schemes of event sequences" in poems (Jörg Schönert et al .: Lyrik und Narratologie , 2007). Reductionist approaches of this kind are criticized from various sides, for example by the discourse theory of poetry, which tries to identify the numerous reflections of found discourses in lyrical texts (e.g. K. Stierle : Lyrik - a second-order genre?, 2008). The anthropology of lyric poetry , which understands poems in their complex possibilities of generating “ aesthetic evidence ”, also runs counter to the narrative-reductionist position (Rüdiger Zymner: Lyrik. Outline and Concept , 2009).

literature

  • Dieter Burdorf: Poetry Theory . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 212-215.
  • Bernhard Sorg: poetry, poetry theory . In: Horst Brunner and Rainer Moritz (eds.): Literary Studies Lexicon · Basic concepts of German studies . Schmidt Verlag, 2nd revised and expanded edition, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-503-07982-3 , pp. 245–249.
  • Ludwig Völker (Hrsg.): Poetry theory. Texts from the baroque to the present . Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-15-008657-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dieter Burdorf : Poetry theory . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 212.
  2. ↑ See Dieter Burdorf: Poetry Theory . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 212. See also Bernhard Sorg: Lyrik, Lyriktheorie . In: Horst Brunner and Rainer Moritz (eds.): Literary Studies Lexicon · Basic concepts of German studies . Schmidt Verlag, 2nd revised and expanded edition, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-503-07982-3 , p. 248.
  3. ↑ Cf. Dieter Burdorf: Lyriktheorie . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 212f.
  4. ↑ See Dieter Burdorf: Lyriktheorie . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 213.
  5. ↑ See Dieter Burdorf: Poetry Theory . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 213.
  6. ↑ See Dieter Burdorf: Poetry Theory . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011 , ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 213f.
  7. ↑ Cf. Dieter Burdorf: Lyriktheorie . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011 , ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 213f.
  8. ↑ Cf. Dieter Burdorf: Lyriktheorie . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart 2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 214.
  9. ↑ Cf. Dieter Burdorf: Lyriktheorie . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , p. 214. See also Bernhard Sorg: Lyrik, Lyriktheorie . In: Horst Brunner and Rainer Moritz (eds.): Literary Studies Lexicon · Basic concepts of German studies . Schmidt Verlag, 2nd revised and expanded edition, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-503-07982-3 , p. 249
  10. ↑ Cf. Dieter Burdorf: Lyriktheorie . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 214f.
  11. ↑ Cf. Dieter Burdorf: Lyriktheorie . In: Gerhard Lauer and Christine Ruhrberg (eds.): Lexicon literary studies · Hundred basic concepts . Philipp Reclam jun. Verlag, Stuttgart2011, ISBN 978-3-15-010810-9 , pp. 214f.

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