Blending as a theoretical tool for poetic analysis

Publisher： John Benjamins Publishing Company

E-ISSN： 1572-0276|3|1|269-299

ISSN： 1572-0268

Source： Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics. Published under the auspices of the Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association, Vol.3, Iss.1, 2005-01, pp. : 269-299

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Abstract

The relation between Linguistics and Poetics has often been a controversial issue in Poetic Studies. With the advent of Cognitive Linguistics and its open disposition to consider any kind of discourse as interesting enough samples of human thought — and human thought being discovered to be of a figurative nature — doors have been widely opened to poetry. Despite the firm reluctance of some Literary sectors to move beyond traditional Poetics, the works by E. Semino, P. Stockwell, Gavins Steen and M. Freeman are clear confirmation of the modern tendency to incorporate CL findings into poetic analysis. The present paper explores this relation once again. Based on the “unity-in-variety” aesthetic principle, it analyses the way Blending Theory provides the necessary resources to consider any single piece of the poem in the integration network. The paper also offers a systematic methodology — illustrated with a brief analysis of Seamus Heaney’s “Oracle” — which intends to make a contribution to the discipline of Poetics mainly in the educational field.