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What is poetic form? This course is based on the observation that notions of poetic form are often only addressed in passing when discussing a literary text in the classroom. So this course is an experiment in raising awareness and stretching our minds to arrive at a greater appreciation of form. Following Theodor Adorno, who deplored the “philistine division of art into form and content” (Ästhetische Theorie, transl. Aesthetic Theory) and argued that art is both limited and liberated by form, and adhering to John Dewey conviction that “there can be no distinction drawn, save in reflection, between form and substance” (Art as Experience), we will explore ways of understanding form which are distinctly non-reductive and non-materialistic. Arguably, poetic form is both the stimulus for and the result of cognitive processes that compute information regarding shape, organisational units and the meaning of an artefact or a work of art. Hence, we will also venture into the emerging field of cognitive poetics. In the Aristotelian tradition, pure form does not exist in the realm of humans, it is always attached to matter. At the same time, form is not a quality or property of matter, it is a conceptual category that is brought to the object (hê kata ton logon ousia; Metaphysics VII 10, 1035b15). So instead of arguing for a special, literary conception of form when looking at poetry, plays, and prose in this class, we will scrutinize form as a general cognitive and emotional construction. Texts to be read for and and in class will be provided. On three occasions the seminar will be transformed into a workshop with experts discussing with us new perspectives in the realm of poetry, drama, and prose. “Form, then, might be a word which, as a result of all these repeated, reformulated definitions, starts to alter the very thing we mean by knowing.” (Angela Leighton. On Form. [Oxford: OUP, 2007], 27.) |
