The Life of Words
Etymology and Modern Poetry
Seiten
2020
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-881247-0 (ISBN)
Oxford University Press (Verlag)
978-0-19-881247-0 (ISBN)
Studies the role that etymologies and etymological thinking have played in the works of English language poets including Seamus Heaney, R. F. Langley, J. H. Prynne, Geoffrey Hill, and Paul Muldoon.
For centuries, investigations into the origins of words were entwined with investigations into the origins of humanity and the cosmos. With the development of modern etymological practice in the nineteenth century, however, many cherished etymologies were shown to be impossible, and the very idea of original 'true meaning' asserted in the etymology of 'etymology' declared a fallacy. Structural linguistics later held that the relationship between sound and meaning in language was 'arbitrary', or 'unmotivated', a truth that has survived with small modification until today. On the other hand, the relationship between sound and meaning has been a prime motivator of poems, at all times throughout history.
The Life of Words studies a selection of poets inhabiting our 'Age of the Arbitrary', whose auditory-semantic sensibilities have additionally been motivated by a historical sense of the language, troubled as it may be by claims and counterclaims of 'fallacy' or 'true meaning'. Arguing that etymology activates peculiar kinds of epistemology in the modern poem, the book pays extended attention to poems by G. M. Hopkins, Anne Waldman, Ciaran Carson, and Anne Carson, and to the collected works of Geoffrey Hill, Paul Muldoon, Seamus Heaney, R. F. Langley, and J. H. Prynne.
For centuries, investigations into the origins of words were entwined with investigations into the origins of humanity and the cosmos. With the development of modern etymological practice in the nineteenth century, however, many cherished etymologies were shown to be impossible, and the very idea of original 'true meaning' asserted in the etymology of 'etymology' declared a fallacy. Structural linguistics later held that the relationship between sound and meaning in language was 'arbitrary', or 'unmotivated', a truth that has survived with small modification until today. On the other hand, the relationship between sound and meaning has been a prime motivator of poems, at all times throughout history.
The Life of Words studies a selection of poets inhabiting our 'Age of the Arbitrary', whose auditory-semantic sensibilities have additionally been motivated by a historical sense of the language, troubled as it may be by claims and counterclaims of 'fallacy' or 'true meaning'. Arguing that etymology activates peculiar kinds of epistemology in the modern poem, the book pays extended attention to poems by G. M. Hopkins, Anne Waldman, Ciaran Carson, and Anne Carson, and to the collected works of Geoffrey Hill, Paul Muldoon, Seamus Heaney, R. F. Langley, and J. H. Prynne.
David-Antoine Williams is Associate Professor of English at St Jerome's University in the University of Waterloo. He was educated at Harvard University, The University of St Andrews, and Balliol College, Oxford. His previous book, Defending Poetry: Art and Ethics in Joseph Brodsky, Seamus Heaney, and Geoffrey Hill, was published by Oxford University Press in 2010.
Proem
1: Origins
2: Adaptations in the Age of the Arbitrary
3: Etymological Recirculation in Seamus Heaney, R. F. Langley, and J. H. Prynne
4: Geoffrey Hill's Etymological Crux
5: Paul Muldoon's Etymological Thread
Afterword: 'And it ends right here'
| Erscheinungsdatum | 23.07.2020 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Oxford |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 162 x 235 mm |
| Gewicht | 596 g |
| Themenwelt | Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Sprachphilosophie |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik | |
| Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-19-881247-7 / 0198812477 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-19-881247-0 / 9780198812470 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
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