“Words fail but meanings still exist”: Exploring the relationship of apophasis to poetic practice
Year: 2020
Type: dissertation
Abstract: Since classical times, apophasis, the rhetoric of negation, has been harnessed as a means of writing about and addressing the ineffable in philosophy, literature and theology.This thesis is concerned with the dynamic relationship between poetry and ineffability, and specifically with how apophasis may inform a contemporary poetics that seeks to grapple with the unsayable.Arguing that language becomes more potent as poetic material when pushed towards engagement with the ineffable, the thesis thus investigates how poets might use the principles and techniques of apophasis to push at aesthetic and expressive boundaries.In order to trace the historical development, changing meanings, and interpretative possibilities of apophasis as concept and as practice, this thesis considers the writings, from ancient times to the present day, of key philosophers (such as Jacques Derrida); theologians (such as Dionysius the Areopagite); and poets (such as Rumi and Charles Wright), with a particular focus on
Author: Mags Webster
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3093275653