Studies of Imagery in Early Mediterranean and East Asian Poetry

Description

This volume consists of articles on imagery in the poetry of various literary canons. Focussing on figurative speech, the authors analyse poetry of the Near East, Greece, the Arabic world, early modern Spain, classical China and classical Japan. The articles present new research based on individual approaches for each particular canon within a wide span from socio-cultural environment to semantic and cognitive properties of specific images. They deal with the poetics of the other, the role of the poet, poetic persuasion in politics, traditional typologies of tropes, intertextuality, and the principle of analogy. The authors combine literary theory with specialised knowledge of the local context and literary tradition and provide innovative and dynamic close readings. Cover Contents Introduction (Kerstin Eksell) Poetry in the Hebrew Bible as Seen through Johann Gottfried von Herder’s Reading Glasses (Jesper Høgenhaven) Poetic Narratives: Moving Images in Old Babylonian Myths and the Characterisation of the Hero Gods Inana and Ninurta (Laura Feldt) Poetic References in Plato’s Laws: The Preamble on Marriage (721b6-c6 and 772e7-774a2) (Claudia Zichi) Natural Imagery in Li Qingzhao’s Song Lyrics: “As Fragile as Chrysanthemums”? (Lena Rydholm) On the Seashore in Japanese Classical Poetry – The Innermost of the Human Heart (Gunilla Lindberg-Wada) Expansions of Metaphor in Classical Japanese Court Literature (Stina Jelbring) Figurative Speech According to the Talkhīṣ. al-Miftah. by al-Qazwīnī. With an Excursus on A. F. van Mehren’s Die Rhetorik der Araber (Kerstin Eksell) Light and Colour in Arabo–Andalusian Poetry (Kerstin Eksell) Góngora on the Stage. Early Modern Spanish Poetry and Ingenium (Juan Carlos Cruz Suárez) Notes on Contributors