Prosimetrum
Prosimetrum (plural prosimetra ) is the name for (literary) texts that are composed partly of prose and partly of metrical text (poem forms).
Conceptual
The term is composed of the terms prose and meter , each of which describes the two main genres of language: normal, everyday language (prose) and bound language following a formal poetic principle (poetry, verse, meter). The combination of these two terms to the word prosimenter symbolically reflects the two components of prosimetric texts, which are composed of prosaic and metrical parts.
A distinction must be made between pure prose and metra (poetry) lying text forms such as rhythmized prose and the like: A characteristic of a prosimetrum is precisely not a mixing of the formal design principles of both language forms, but their combination in a text that is constitutively composed of text parts of both genres is.
So a prayer that is strongly rhythmic and (as prose) closely approximates a metrical text is a text form that stands between prose and meter, but not a prosimetrum; Likewise, a book in which poems are collected and each is preceded by a short prose introduction is not a prosimetrum because the two parts are not in a constitutive connection, but can be separated from each other without destroying the work.
Under meter in accordance with the definition of a Prosimetrums is not in the narrow sense, the metric (quantitative system) Versdichtung ancient coinage to understand, to which the term meter refers initially but depending on the language, any form of poetry, as such, as opposed to prose (whereby the boundaries between prose and bound poetry in the various languages are fluid and cannot be drawn absolutely). A German prose center can therefore contain verses in non-metric, but rhythmically accentuating form without violating the definition.
origin
The occasional occurrence of poetry within continuous prose is arguably as old as the tradition of the languages themselves. In some books of the Old Testament, e.g. B. cited songs or (especially in the prophets) inserted whole chapters in metrical language. Even modern scientific treatises can e.g. B. contain quotations from poems, epics or the like (especially in literary studies that deal with such texts). Such accidental interpenetrations of prose and meter do not, however, constitute prosimetra.
The first author who consciously created a prosimetric form was, according to the current state of knowledge, the ancient philosopher and writer Menipp , who created his own genre of literature, the Menippe satire , on the one hand through its ironic-satirical content, on the other hand through the conscious connection and Penetration of prose and meter. However, except for a few quotations, Menipp's works are lost. An idea of what these works might have looked like can be gained from later works by imitators, e.g. B. from some texts by Lukian of Samosata , z. B. the satire The tragedy-playing Zeus , who inseparably combines verse dialogues in the style of ancient tragedy with prose parts.
Boethius ' Consolatio philosophiae is one of the later descendants of these philosophical-literary products . A transformation of this work was carried out in high literary quality by Laurentius von Durham in his Consolatio de morte amici in 1141 .
Examples of prosimetra
In the occidental tradition, after the end of the ancient culture, prosimetra largely disappeared. The medieval French novel Aucassin et Nicolette , which tells the same ongoing plot partly in prose, partly in epic or folk-song-like stanzas, is generally considered to be the earliest express prosimetrum .
Prosimetra, which are still widespread today, also represent most of the librettos of operas , operettas , singspiels , oratorios and the like, because they inseparably link texts in prose (speaking scenes, recitatives, narrators) with metrical-poetic forms (arias, choirs, chorales etc.). In this area the prosimetrum has probably experienced the most widespread use.
Perhaps some of the old Scandinavian sagas can also be classified as prosimetra, which in addition to narrative also contain skald stanzas , which are often included in decisive moments of the plot, so that they provide reasons without which the further course of the plot cannot be understood and the like. The closer the internal connection between these stanzas and the prose text, the more likely it is to speak of a prosimetrum, not just an external ornament that can easily be skipped over or even left out in a print.
Overall, however, prosimetra have remained rather the exception in the western literary tradition.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Text and translation by Udo Kindermann , Should one mourn the dead? An answer from 1141 in the Consolatio des Laurentius von Durham, Erlangen 2010; ISBN 978-3-7896-0688-5 .
- ^ Wilhelm Hertz: Spielmannsbuch. Novellas in verse from the 12th and 13th centuries . New print Phaidon, Darmstadt o. J., pp. 225–263. ISBN 96544936X .