Unity as Community: Empson’s Poetic Skepticism in Seven Types of Ambiguity
0
조회
0
다운로드
0
인용
0
참고문헌
키워드
초록
This paper purports to investigate William Empson’s poetics of ambiguity represented in Seven Types of Ambiguity, framing it as “poetic skepticism.” To do so, it pays attention to a few critical occasions that he deals with certain types of ambiguity in the poems of Shakespeare, Richard Crashaw, and George Herbert via the suspension of judgment (epoché), bound to the equilibrium of hidden meanings (isosothenia). Empson’s poetic skepticism illuminates poetry’s natural predilection for the proliferation of meanings that fends off any dogmatic assertion of impetuous judgment and unitary interpretation. Empson’s rival critics have often criticized its strenuous elicitation of open-mindedness, intellectual freedom, and epistemological modesty for propagating interpretive anarchy or even semantic nihilism. As opposed to this view, the paper explores how Empson’s poetic skepticism brings about a sense of unity, while defining it as a broad, open-ended semantic community that accommodates contradictions and disjunctions entailed by poetry. Empson’s distinctive critical approach testifies that all poems are inherently associated with skepticism, as they demand the suspension of judgment for its cornucorpian substance and its resistance to dogmatism.
Abstract
This paper purports to investigate William Empson’s poetics of ambiguity represented in Seven Types of Ambiguity, framing it as “poetic skepticism.” To do so, it pays attention to a few critical occasions that he deals with certain types of ambiguity in the poems of Shakespeare, Richard Crashaw, and George Herbert via the suspension of judgment (epoché), bound to the equilibrium of hidden meanings (isosothenia). Empson’s poetic skepticism illuminates poetry’s natural predilection for the proliferation of meanings that fends off any dogmatic assertion of impetuous judgment and unitary interpretation. Empson’s rival critics have often criticized its strenuous elicitation of open-mindedness, intellectual freedom, and epistemological modesty for propagating interpretive anarchy or even semantic nihilism. As opposed to this view, the paper explores how Empson’s poetic skepticism brings about a sense of unity, while defining it as a broad, open-ended semantic community that accommodates contradictions and disjunctions entailed by poetry. Empson’s distinctive critical approach testifies that all poems are inherently associated with skepticism, as they demand the suspension of judgment for its cornucorpian substance and its resistance to dogmatism.
참고문헌 (28)
- Bacon, Francis, "Francis Bacon: The Major Works" (2008), Oxford UP
- Bradbrook, M. C., "William Empson: The Man and His Work" (1974), Routledge & Kegan Paul
- Budelmann, Felix, "Ambiguity and Audience Response", A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 23(3), pp.89~114 (2016)
- Burt, Stephen, "Empson and the Censor", Modern Philology, 107(3), pp.447~474 (2010)
- Constable, John, "Critical Essays on William Empson" (1993), Scolar P
- Crashaw, Richard, "Poems English Latin and Greek of Richard Crashaw", pp.317~321 (1957), Oxford UP
- Eagleton, Terry, "Literary Theory: An Introduction" (2008), U of Minnesota P
- Empiricus, Sextus, "Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Scepticism" (2000), Cambridge UP
- Empson, William, "Seven Types of Ambiguity" (1966), New Directions
- Empson, William, "Critical Essays on William Empson" (1993), Scolar P
- Herbert, George, "The Complete English Poems", pp.23~31 (2004), Penguin Books
- Kenner, Hugh, "Critical Thought Series: 3" (1993), Scolar P
- Longenbach, James, "The Art of the Poetic Line" (2008), Graywolf P
- Longenbach, James, "The Resistance to Poetry" (2009), U of Chicago P
- Nietzsche, Friedrich, "Basic Writings of Nietzsche" (2000), Modern Library
- Norris, Christopher, "William Empson: The Critical Achievement" (1993), Cambridge UP
- Norris, Christopher, "William Empson and the Philosophy of Literary Criticism" (1978), The Athlone P
- Athlone P., "Some Versions of Empson" (2007), xford UP
- North, Joseph, "What's ‘New Critical’ about ‘Close Reading’? I. A. Richards and His New Critical Reception", New Literary History, 44(1), pp.141~157 (2013)
- Park, Clara Claiborne, "Ambiguities, Complexities, Puzzles: A Late Encounter with William Empson", The Hudson Review, 59(1), pp.53~65 (2006)
- Perry, Seamus, "Some Versions of Empson" (2007), Oxford UP
- Popkin, H. Richard, "The History of Scepticism from Erasmus to Spinoza" (1979), U of California P
- Ricks, Christopher, "The Force of Poetry" (1984), Oxford UP
- Richards, Ivor A., "Principles of Literary Criticism" (1963), Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
- Shakespeare, William, "Shakespeare’s Sonnets", pp.142~143 (2010), Arden Shakespeare
- Tuve, Rosemond, "Critical Essays on William Empson" (1993), Scolar P
- Wiley, Margaret L., "The Subtle Knot: Creative Scepticism in Seventeenth-Century England" (1952), Harvard UP
- Wihl, Gary, "William Empson: The Tolerant Literary Critic", The Midwest Quarterly, 54(4), pp.370~381 (2013)