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Document Details :

Title: 'Een God die zwijgt'
Subtitle: Betekenisresonanties en verhaalrestanten in 'Verbeurd van alles', een nagelaten gedicht van Karel van de Woestijne
Author(s): VANDEVOORDE, Hans
Journal: Spiegel der Letteren
Volume: 53    Issue: 3   Date: 2011   
Pages: 311-331
DOI: 10.2143/SDL.53.3.2131162

Abstract :
‘Verbeurd van alles’ is the last (completely new) poem that Karel van de Woestijne (1878-1929) wrote. In this article I first want to show how narratology can contribute to the genetic study of poems and more in particular how choices made by a poet during the creative process can be elucidated with the help of narratology. I therefore appeal to the theory of the German narratologist Peter Hühn, who considered the ‘event’ – ‘the decisive turning point in the poem’s sequentiality’ (Hühn 2004, 145) – as a basis for studying narration in a poem. As to the poem ‘Verbeurd van alles’, the choices Van de Woestijne made appear to be aimed at blotting out the narrative elements from the poem, which – in terms of Hühn – means that he pushes ‘events in the happenings’ into the background in favour of ‘mediation events’. Secondly, I want to show that these choices indicate that a specific ‘poetic plot’ exists. Contrary to Hühn, I consider the ‘poetic plot’ not as a purely mental or psychic and thus associative construct, but as a combination of mental- associative and narrative-consecutive elements. According to Hühn we must base our interpretation of a ‘poetic plot’ on extra-textual contexts and world knowledge (‘cognitive schemes’). In the case of Van de Woestijne these include expressions resounding from previous and later poems that enhance the associative strength of the poem.

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