Imagination, Metaphor and Mythopoeia in the Poetry of Three Major English Romantic Poets
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IMAGINATION, METAPHOR AND MYTHOPOEIA IN THE POETRY OF THREE MAJOR ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETS A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY FIRAT KARADA Ş IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH LITERATURE JULY 2007 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. SencerAyata Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Prof. Dr. Wolf König Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret Sönmez Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şükriye Ruhi (METU, FLE) Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret Sönmez (METU, FLE) Prof. Dr. Ahmet İnam (METU, PHIL) Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik (METU, FLE) Assist. Prof. Dr. Hande Sadun (Hacettepe U., IED) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Fırat Karada ş Signature : iii ABSTRACT IMAGINATION, METAPHOR AND MYTHOPOEIA IN THE POETRY OF THREE MAJOR ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETS Karada ş, Fırat Ph.D., English Literature Supervisor : Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret Sönmez July 2007, 252 pages This thesis studies metaphor, myth and their imaginative aspects in the poetry of William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley and John Keats. The thesis argues that a comprehensive understanding of metaphor and myth cannot be done in the works of these poets without seeing them as faces of the same coin, and taking into consideration the role of the creating subject and its imagination in their production. Relying on Kantian, Romantic, and modern Neo-Kantian ideas of imagination, metaphor and myth, the study tries to indicate that imagination is an inherently metaphorizing and mythologizing faculty because the act of perception is an act of giving form to natural phenomena and seeing similitude in dissimilitude, which are basically metaphorical and mythological acts. In its form-giving activity the imagination of the speaking subjects of the poems studied in this thesis sees objects of nature as spiritual, animate or divine beings and thus transforms them into the alien territory of myth. This thesis analyzes myth and metaphor mainly in two regards: first, myth and metaphor are handled as inborn aspects of imagination and perception, and the interaction between nature and imagination are iv presented as the origin of all mythology; second, to show how myth is something that is re-created time and again by poetic imagination, Romantic mythography and re-creation of precursor mythologies are analyzed. In both regards, poetic imagination appears as a formative power that constructs, defamiliarizes and re-creates via mythologization and metaphorization. Keywords: Romantic poetics, metaphor, myth, imagination, perception v ÖZ ÖNEML İ ÜÇ İNG İLİZ ROMANT İK ŞAİRİN Şİİ RLER İNDE İMGELEM, METAFOR VE M İT YARATIMI Karada ş, Fırat Doktora, İngiliz Edebiyatı Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd. Doç. Dr. Margaret Sönmez Temmuz 2007, 252 sayfa Bu tez William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley ve John Keats’in şiirlerinde metafor, mit ve imgelemsel özelliklerini incelemektedir. Tez, söz konusu şairlerin şiirlerinde mit ve metaforu imgelemin ve algılama sürecinin birbirini tamamlayan etmenleri olarak ele almakta ve yaratımlarında öznenin i şlevsel rolüne i şaret etmektedir. Çalı şma, Kantçı, Romantik ve modern Neo-Kantçı imgelem, metafor ve mit dü şüncelerine dayanarak imgelemin özünde metafor ve mitoloji üreten bir yeti oldu ğunu çünkü bir öznenin imgelemi için algılama eyleminin do ğadaki nesneleri biçimlendirme ve farklılıklar arasında benzerlik görme eylemi oldu ğunu, bunun da temelde metafor ve mit yaratımı anlamına geldi ğini söylemektedir. Bu biçimlendirme eylemi esnasında, söz konusu şairlerin şiirlerindeki konu şucu özneler imgelemleriyle do ğadaki nesnelere tinsel, canlılara özgü veya ilahi özellikler yükleyerek onları mitolojinin do ğaüstü ve yabancı dünyasına dönü ştürürler. Bu tez, söz konusu şiirlerde metafor ve miti ba şlıca iki ba ğlamda incelemektedir: birinci ba ğlamda, metafor ve miti imgelem ve algılama sürecinin özünde varolan nitelikler olarak ele almakta ve imgelem ile do ğa arasındaki etkile şimin antik ça ğdan, Romantik döneme ve günümüze kadar mitolojinin kayna ğı oldu ğunu savunmaktadır. vi İkinci ba ğlamda ise mitolojinin şiirsel imgelem tarafından sürekli yeniden yaratılan bir şey oldu ğunu göstermek için Romantik mitografi ele alınmı ş ve eski mitlerin nasıl yeniden yaratıldı ğı gösterilmi ştir. Her iki ba ğlamda şiirsel imgelem mit ve metafor yaratımı yoluyla yeniden kuran ve do ğayı mitolojinin yabancı dünyasına dönü ştüren biçimlendirici bir güç olarak ortaya çıkmaktadır. Anahtar sözcükler: Romantik poetika, metafor, mit, imgelem, algılama vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish first to express sincere gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Margaret Sönmez for her valuable guidence and insight in the writing process. Thanks go to the jury members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şükriye Ruhi and Prof. Dr. Ahmet İnam for their advice, criticism, and encouragements. I would also like to thank the other jury members Assist. Prof. Dr. Nurten Birlik and Assist. Prof. Dr. Hande Sadun for their suggestions and comments. To my wife, Derya, I offer sincere thanks for her unshakable faith in me and her willingness to endure with me my endeavors. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ..................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................iv ÖZ ......................................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..............................................................................viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................1 1.1 Modern Theories of Metaphor and Myth .........................................3 1.2 Statement of Purpose.......................................................................17 1.3 Methodology ..................................................................................18 1.4 Limitations of the Study .................................................................20 2. ROMANTIC AND MODERN NEO-ROMANTIC IDEAS OF METAPHOR AND MYTH AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF ENGLISH ROMANTIC POETRY ....................22 2.1 The Romantic Idea and Its Philosophical Background .................22 2.1.1 The Philosophical Background ....................................................23 2.1.2 The Romantic Conception ...........................................................36 2.2 Modern Neo-Romantic Ideas: Ernst Cassirer and Paul Ricoeur ..................................................................................48 2.2.1 Ernst Cassirer and the Role of ‘Human Spirit’ in Linguistic and Artistic Creation ..................................................50 ix 2.2.2 Paul Ricoeur, the Discursive and Imaginative Character of Metaphor and Its Implications for the Study of Myth .......................................................................61 2.3 The Criteria Derived From the Theoretical Framework .....................................................................................74 3. METAPHORIZATION AND MYTHOLOGIZATION AS INDISPENSIBLE ASPECTS OF PERCEPTION AND IMAGINATION IN THE POETRY OF WORDSWORTH, SHELLEY AND KEATS .......................................................................76 3.1 Mind and Nature: Interaction or Construction? .............................78 3.1.1 Grown Up with the Breathing Soul of Nature: The Mind Learning to Authorize its Mother ...............................78 3.1.2 Separation From the ‘babe nursed in its mother’s arms:’ Man’s Alienation from Nature .........................................89 3.1.3 Poetic Imagination as the Origin of All Mythology: Keats’s “I Stood Tip-toe Upon a Hill” ......................................102 3.1.4 ‘Some Unseen Pow’r Floats Around’ Beings of Nature: The Tremendous Power of the Mind ...........................106 3.2 Evening and Autumn as Mythemes of Mortality and Transience .............................................................................117 3.3 Nature Beautified or Beauty Naturalized ....................................129 3.3.1 Mythologization of Nature for Self-Transcendence ..................129 3.3.2 Immobility as Alternative to Transience ...................................137 4. ROMANTIC MYTHOGRAPHY IN THE POETRY OF SHELLEY AND KEATS .....................................................................143 4.1 Reconstruction of the Daemonic .................................................145 4.1.1 Reconstruction of the She-Monster ...........................................147 4.1.1.1 The Witch Unwitched: The Divine Witch of Shelley’s The Witch of Atlas ..............................................147 4.1.1.2 The Sympathetic and Beautiful Serpent of Keats’s Lamia ....................................................................156