The representation of perception in literature: How literature imitates non-linguistic experience

1. The representation of perception in literature: How literature imitates non-linguistic experience Prof. Jørgen Dines Johansen Presented in Prof. Dagmar Schmauks’ seminar Berlin June 9, 2008

2. . . . NON OLIT pecunia non olit: money does not stink lingua non olit: language does not stink

3. IF LANGUAGE DOES NOT SMELL, DOES NOT SEE, HEAR, TOUCH, OR TASTE, BECAUSE IT IS NOT A LIVING ORGANISM THAT SENSES AND PERCEIVES, HOW CAN IT REPRESENT SENSING AND PERCEPTION IN LINGUISTIC TEXTS? BY PUTTING WORDS TOGETHER, BY CREATING TEXTS, OBVIOUSLY, BUT, THEN AGAIN, TEXTS NORMALLY DO SO THROUGH DESCRIPTION, I.E., BY MENTIONING AND ASSERTING THAT A CERTAIN PHENOMENON IS PRESENT THAT, IF KNOWN BY ACQUAINTANCE, WOULD BE EXPERIENCED THROUGH THE SENSES AND PERCEIVED, LET US TURN ONCE MORE TO MME. BOVARY

4. This disappointment quickly gave way to a new hope, and Emma returned to him more avid and enflamed that before. She undressed brutally, ripping off the thin laces of her corset so violently that they would whistle round her hips like a gliding snake. She went on tiptoe, barefooted, to see once more that the door was locked, then with one movement, she would let her clothes fall at once to the ground; — then, pale and serious, without a word, she would throw herself against his breast with a long shudder.

5. WHAT YOU PERCEIVE HERE ARE THE WORDS AS VISUAL SHAPES, AND PERHAPS YOU ASSOCIATE/ATTACH SOUNDS WITH/TO THE VISUALLY REPRESENTED LETTERS. IF SOMEBODY READS THE TEXT ALOUD WE WILL BE PERCIEVING IT THROUGH HEARING IN VISUALIZING THIS SCENE, HOW MUCH ARE WE BOUND BY THE LINGUISTIC TEXT? A LINGUISTIC TEXT MAY, AMONG OTHER THINGS BE REGARDED AS A SET OF INSTRUCTIONS FOR ICONIZING THE TEXT. 1. AN ORDER OF EVENTS, 2. SPECIFIC DETAILS, 3. A CERTAIN MOOD. HENCE, WE ARE NOT ALLOWED TO IMAGINE ANYTHING, BUT SO MUCH IS NOT SPECIFIED BY DESCRIPTION, AND THUS, WE ARE MORE OR LESS FREE MAKE OUR OWN CHOICES.

6. using our imagination is, of course, at some point related to perception, or to memories of what we have perceived, since neither memory nor imagination would have much to work with if nothing had been perceived. However, imagining is not perceiving – Hence, (re)constructing from linguistic description a scene or course of events in the theatrum internum of the mind is certainly not perceiving either

7. Staging and acting: WE KNOW THAT WE, IN INDIVIDUAL READINGS, HAVE PSEUDO-PERCEPTUAL REALIZATIONS OF THE LINGUISTIC TEXT, I.E., WE IMAGINE SOMETHING USING THE LINGUISTIC TEXT AS A SET OF INSTRUCTIONS TO CONSTRUCT AN IMAGINARY SCENERY – HOWEVER, THERE ARE PUBLIC REALIZATIONS AS WELL, NAMELY STAGINGS OR FILMS OF PLAYS, AND WHAT IS ADDED IS PRECISELY THE POSSIBILITY OF PERCEIVING, IN STEAD OF JUST IMAGINING. BY MEANS OF PROPS, LIGHT, ETC. A PERCEPTIBLE, MAKE BELIEVE, SPACE IS CREATED. IN THIS SPACE PERSONS ARE MOVING, TALKING, I.E. SPECIFIC PRONOUNCIATIONS OF THE TEXT AS UTTERANCES ARE ADDED, AND FURTHERMORE THE PERSONS ARE INTERACTING IN DIFFERENT PERCEPTUAL MODES

9. Three uses of similarity in literary texts: veni, vidi, vici 1. exploring continuity/contiguity the dictum imitates a supposed order of events: mimetic and diagrammatic representation 2. uses similarity to create poetic relationship by patterning of the sound substance

10. There are, however, literary texts that make us perceive, not just imagine phenomena related to what they describe, namely pattern poetry and so-called visual poetry (exist, in fact, from antiquity onward)

11. 3. qualitative similarities between object and its linguistic representation

12. Carmina figurata/pattern poems (here Simias Rhodius's "Wings of Eros in Theocritus", 1516)

13. Rabelais : " la Dive Bouteille ", Cinquième Livre (XVIème siècle) O Bouteille,Pleine touteDe mystères,D'une oreilleJe t'écoute :Ne diffère,Et le mot profèreAuquel pend mon cœurEn la tant divine liqueur,Qui est dedans tes flancs reclose,Bacchus, qui fut d'Inde vainqueur,Tient toute vérité enclose.Vin tant divin, loin de toi est forcloseToute mensonge et toute tromperie.En joie soit l'aire de Noach close,Lequel de toi nous fit la tempérie.Sonne le beau mot, je t'en prie,Qui me doit ôter de misère.Ainsi ne se perde une goutteDe toi, soit blanche ou soit vermeille.O Bouteille,Pleine touteDe mystères,D'une oreilleJe t'écoute :Ne diffère.

14. George Herbert EASTER-WINGS.(from The Temple 1633) LORD, who createdst man in wealth and store,     Though foolishly he lost the same,         Decaying more and more,             Till  he  became                 Most poor :                 With  thee             O  let  me  rise         As larks, harmoniously,     And sing this day thy victories : Then  shall  the  fall  further  the  flight  in  me. My  tender  age  in  sorrow  did  beginne :     And still with sicknesses and shame         Thou didst so punish sinne,             That  I  became                 Most thinne.                 With  thee             Let me combine,         And feel this day thy victorie,     For,  if  I  imp  my  wing  on  thine, Affliction  shall  advance  the  flight  in  me.

15. George Herbert: “The Altar” A broken ALTAR, Lord thy servant rears,Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;No workmans tool hath touch'd the sameA HEART aloneIs such a stone,As nothing butThy pow'r doth cut.Wherefore each partOf my hard heartMeets in this frame,To praise thy Name:That if I chance to hold my peace,These stones to praise thee may not cease.O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,And sanctifie this ALTAR to be thine.

16. Stanley Fish: "The first thing the poem does, even before we take in any of its words, is call attention to itself . . . [to] the skill and ingenuity of the maker" (1978: 207).

17. ALTARHEARTSACRIFICEALTAR

18. It’s RainingIt’s raining women’s voices as if they had died even in memoryAnd it’s raining you as well marvelous encounters of my life O little dropsThose rearing clouds begin to neigh a whole universe of auricular citiesListen if it rains while regret and disdain weep to an ancient musicListen to the bonds fall off which hold you above and below

19. Achtung Gleisdreieck! Untergrund Kinoschund, Kunterbunt Bühnenbund Kurve! und Grünen im Gleis ‑ drei ‑ eck! Nepp ‑ be - werb! Alles flucht Rummelplatz! Alles sucht Bummel Schatz! Drunter und Schummel und drü ‑ ber ‑ weg Lach ‑ und ‑ erb'! Jedermann Cabaret Lebemann, Séparé Biedermann: Oder The- Schieber ater Allesamt Impression Gleichverschlampt Expression Gleiches Ka‑ Alles ein liber! Kater! Jeder in Anderer Richtung und Achtung! Das Gleis ‑ drei ‑ eck!

20. Kutsche und Untergrund Droschke und Kunterbunt Mund an Mund Kurve! und los ‑ töff ‑ töff! Re ‑ pu ‑ blik! Pierrot General Pierret' Und sozial Numero Allemal soixant‚ - neuf mit Mu ‑ sik! Seidne, be‑ Rasen und scheidene, Phrasen und Alles im Faseln im Kater Fie ‑ ber. Lebemann Rassen und Ehemann Klassen das Achherrjeh! Gleiche Ka‑ Vater! liber! Jeder in Anderer Richtung und Achtung! Das Gleis ‑ drei ‑ eck! (Walter Mehring)

21. Mehring’s poem is very successful in miming, not shape, but movement, i.e., the passengers moving from one platform to another

22. Ernst Jandl: Erfolg im dritten Versuch:

23. Jandel’s poem is also about movement, namely first, the second shut, and thenthe third shot that makes the bullet smash the brain. If one would like to criticize the poem, one could argue that the course of events related is highly improbable: How can you miss twice when you put a gun to your own head – even Werther needed only one shut to kill himself, even if it did take more time than he wished for. But probably Jandl did not tried to tell a probale story, he wanted rather to work concretely with the letters to create the illusion of movement.

25. the English translation of Morgenstern’s poem, which is in itself wonderful, is a great joke!

26. A click, a sputter, a whoosh- to roar!line 1 A flick, a shudder, a push- to soar!line 2 The wings held steady; the nose held high;line 3 The plane is ready to touch the sky!line 4

27. Takeoff

31. Guillaume Apollinaire: “Coeur couronne et miroir” Mon coeur pareil à une flamme renversée Les rois Qui MeuRent Tour A touR Renaissent au coeur des poèteS Dans ce miroir je suis enclos vivant et vrai comme on imagine les anges et non comme sont les reflets Guillaume Apollinaire

32. Mon coeur pareil à une flamme renversée

33. Are calligrams tautological? According to Michel Foucault a calligram is tautological because of its double nature. It “se sert de cette propriété des lettres de valoir à la fois comme des éléments linéaires qu’on peut disposer dans l’espace et comme des signes qu’on doit dérouler selon la chaîne unique de la substance sonore” (Foucault: Ceci n’est pas une pipe, 1973, pp. 21-2)

34. HENCE, ONE MAY ASK WHETHER THE CALLIGRAM IS OVERCOMING THE DIVISION BETWEEN LITERARURE THAT, ACCORDING TO LESSING MOVES IN TIME, AND PAINTING AND SCULPTURE THAT UNFOLDS IN SPACE. OR, AS FOUCAULT SEEMS TO THINK, IT IS GRATITUOUSLY TAUTOLOGICAL? BOTH POINTS OF VIEW MAY BE DEFENDED.