DIPARTIMENTO DI LINGUE E LETTERATURE STRANIERE – Sezione di Anglistica

Laboratorio 2014/2015Forme e Linguaggi della Poesia Inglese

Venerdì 10 ottobre 2014Dott.ssa Angela Anna Iuliucci

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Forme e Linguaggi della Poesia Inglese

• Laboratorio, 3 CFU • 20 ore accademiche (= 10 settimane di lezione)

• Frequenza: 80% (= 8 lezioni su 10)• Assignments (3)• Calendario:Venerdì, ore 8.30 – 10.30Venerdì, ore 8.30 – 10.30Aula A9 – Piazza Sant’Alessandro, 1Aula A9 – Piazza Sant’Alessandro, 1dal 10 ottobre al 12 dicembre 2014dal 10 ottobre al 12 dicembre 2014

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Forme e Linguaggi della Poesia Inglese

• Materiali sulla piattaforma ARIELARIELhttp://ariel.ctu.unimi.it funzione ricerca

• Per verbalizzare i CFU, iscrizione al Laboratorio tramite SIFA, nel periodo tra il 15 e il 30 novembre 2014

• INFO sul laboratorio:Dott.ssa Angela Anna Iuliucciangela.iuliucci@unimi.it Ricevimento: Venerdì dalle 10,30 alle 12,30 in “ufficio dottorandi” (su appuntamento)

DIPARTIMENTO DI LINGUE E LETTERATURE STRANIERE - Sezione di Anglistica

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aObiettivi Lab

• Consapevolezza CriticaConsapevolezza Critica• Lettura autonoma del testo poetico (e letterario in Lettura autonoma del testo poetico (e letterario in

generale)generale)

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aAspetti formali del testo poetico

• Metro (metre) e ritmo (rhythm)

• Figure retoriche (figurative language, figures of speech)

• Rima (rhyme)

• Forma: sonnet, ode, ballad…

WHAT IS FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE?

Figurative language refers to that

large part of language whose meaning

is not literal but based on images or

pictures of things seen and actions

experienced.

(Ulrych, 1990)

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WHAT DOES FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE BRING TO THE TEXT?

• HumourHumour (it is the case with hyperbole or punning)

• Precision or depth of Precision or depth of expressionexpression

(it is the case with metaphor or simile)DIGI

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IMAGERY

• ImageryImagery is the collective term used to denote the figures of speech or images (pictures or sensations created in the reader’s mind by the writer’s words).

• We may speak of sensory imagessensory images (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, gustatory).

• Poets and writers use imagery to intensify, clarify, enrich their content, making connections between apparently dissimilar things.

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IMAGERY

When poets and writers make use of imagery, the object or situation they are dealing with is brought vividly to the reader’s attention, so that the reader may experience the sensations the writer wishes to evoke:

Its darkness is perfumed with faint gusts from the blossoming lime trees, with the smell of wetted

earth and the invisible greenness of the vines.

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IMAGERY

The three elements of imagery imagery:

1. The tenor1. The tenor: the object/idea being described

2. The ground2. The ground: the common element

3. The vehicle3. The vehicle: what the tenor is compared to

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IMAGERY

Not all of these elements need to be mentioned explicitly. The GroundGround and the vehiclevehicle can be omitted.

A similesimile has all of them, a metaphormetaphor omits the ground, which the reader has to supply:

In the prison of his daysTeach the free man how to praise

(W.H. Auden, In Memory of W.B. Yeats)

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SIMILE

An explicit imaginative comparison introduced by a word such a ‘like’, ‘as’, or ‘such’.

Her words were like music.

The comparison can be simple, briefly expressed or long and sustained (epic epic similesimile).

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METAPHOR

Unlike objects identified with each other for the purpose of emphasizing one or more aspects of resemblance between them without the use of explicit markers (‘like’, ‘as’, ‘such’).

Iago is a serpent. (Othello)

•Concretive metaphor: The pain of separation•Animistic metaphor: The shoulder of the hill•Anthropomorphic metaphor: A friendly river•Dehumanizing metaphor: You blocks, you stones!DI

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DEAD METAPHOR

A metaphor in which the image has become so familiar that it is no longer thought of as figurative.

To take steps (i.e. to take action)

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PERSONIFICATION

Kind of metaphor, by which an abstraction or inanimate object is endowed with personality.

Let the floods clap their hands.

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METONYMY

The naming of a person, institution or human characteristic by some object or quality which is clearly associated with ( crown = king).

This blood of mineFlies forth.

(Blood = life/death)

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SYNECDOCHE

When a part is used to express a whole, or a whole to express a part ( smiling year = spring).

Give us this day our daily bread.

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PARONOMASIA (Pun/Play on words)

A use of a word with more than one meaning or two words which sound the same in such a way that both meaning are called to mind, for humorous or serious purposes.

And having done that, Thou hast done;I fear no more.

(John Donne’s Hymn to God the Father)

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ANTITHESIS

A method of emphasis by the placing of opposed ideas or characteristics in direct contrast with each other.

To err is human, to forgive, divine. (Pope)

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OXYMORON

The conjunction of contrasting terms for effect.

Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!

(Romeo speaking of love)

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PARADOX

A statement that challenges the mind by appearing to be self-contradictory, or conflicting with received opinion, but that contains a basis of truth or provokes the reader to consider that point.

The child is father of the man.

(Wordsworth)

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CONCEIT

An elaborate comparison.

•Petrarchan conceit: XIV c. Handy for use in love poetry, popularized by Petrarch, adapted by his English followers.

•Metaphysical conceit: more intellectualized comparison. Donne’s A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning separated lovers = As stiff twin compasses are two (the legs of a compass).

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LITOTES

Understatement by negating the opposite of what is meant.

I was not ungrateful.

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ALLEGORY

A narrative constructed by representing general concepts as persons who act out the plot (as in morality plays the characters of Everyman: Death, Knowledge, Beauty, Strenght, Discretion…).

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EUPHEMISM (understatement)

A mild or vague expression used to conceal a painful or disagreeable truth.

He passed on (he died)

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HYPERBOLE

Expression in extreme language so as to achieve intensity.

I’m starving!

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HYPALLAGE (transferred epithet)

The transference of an adjective from the noun to which it applies grammatically to some other word in the sentence, as to express the quality of an action or behaviour.

A restless night.

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PERIPHRASIS

A circumlocution, or roundabout form of statement.

The whisker’d vermin race (i.e. rats).

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SYLLEPSIS

When a word is used in a literal and metaphorical sense at the same time.

You have broken my heart and

my best china vase.

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BATHOS

The descent from the sublime to the ridiculous in writing or speech. Although it may be unintentional, it is usually skilfully used as a method of ridicule.

Here thou, great ANNA! whom three realms obeyDost sometimes counsel take – and sometimes

tea.

(Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock)

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IRONY

Form of expression by which the writer intends his meaning to be understood differently and less favourably, in contrast with his literal statement.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune

must be in want of a wife.

(Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice)DIGI

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SARCASM

A bitter or ill-natured remark, sometimes ironical; its motive is to inflict pain.

He first sank to the bottom – like his works,But soon rose to the surface – like himself;

(Byron’s portrait of Southey in The Vision of Judgment)

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SATIRE

The holding up of vice or folly to ridicule, often making use of irony or sarcasm.

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SYMBOLSomething which stands for something else: the rose is a symbol of beauty. Some symbols closely approximate to an idea or person and are easily recognized; others can be understood only by following some associations of ideas.

Ex.: A journey suggests time.

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aFurther Reading

• “Poetic Form and Literary Terminology”. In The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. Abrams – Greenblatt (Appendix).

• Leech, Geoffrey N. (1998), A Linguistic Guide to English Poetry, Longman.

• Colangelo, S. (2003), Come si legge una poesia, Carocci.