Principles of Poetic Structure Cohesion

Each literary work is a unique instance of imaginative representation of reality. However, imaginative representation has its own principles (known as aesthetic principles) which connect all elements of the literary text and help to constitute a world complete in itself [5, p.27].

Principle of Incomplete Representation. In re-creating an object or phenomenon of reality the author selects only the most characteristic features, i.e. a literary image represents features that are most characteristic of an object. Thus, in depicting an image the author makes a selection: he picks out a part (or parts) which can stand for the whole.

All images in a literary text, those of people, events, situations, landscapes, etc. are incompletely represented. This is conditioned at least by two factors:

1. The linguistic factor. Verbal representation of the whole image would demand innumerable pages of writing in which the image itself might inevitably dissolve;

2. The aesthetic factor. As literature transmits aesthetic information, to achieve this aim it must first of all stir up the reader’s interest. One way of doing it is to make the reader use his perceptive abilities and fill in for himself the incompletely represented fragments of the whole [5, p.28].

The degree of incompleteness depends on the genre of the literary work as well as on the individual manner of the writer. It is greater in lyrical poems and smaller in epic works.

The part selected to represent the whole is a poetic detail. Its function is either to typify or to individualize the image [5, p.29]. For instance, in A Painful Case by J. Joyce the author, while portraying Mrs. Sinico, gives prominence to her eyes. He does not only speak about their colour but carefully depicts the way they gazed, the work of the pupils and the impression they produced:

“Their gaze began with a defiant note, but was confused by what seemed a deliberate swoon of the pupil into the iris, revealing for an instant a temperament of great sensibility. The pupil reasserted itself quickly, this half disclosed fell again under the reign of prudence, and her astrakhan jacket, … struck the note of defiance more definitely.” [1, p. 36]

This poetic detail makes the image of Mrs. Sinico peculiar, and as it is supposed that the person’s eyes reveal his nature, we may suggest that J. Joyce aimed at disclosing Mrs. Sinico’s nature through this description.

Principle of Analogy and Contrast. Analogy and contrast are known as universal principles of cognition. Analogy reveals the essence of a phenomenon, discovers the similar and contrastive in different phenomena. In literature analogy/contrast is a way of imaginative cognition. The author contra- and juxtaposes images of real life and that way reveals the good and the evil, the beautiful and the ugly, justice and injustice of life [5, p. 31].

Thus in A Painful Case J. Joyce depicts his main characters in contrast; though both of them were lonely, Mrs. Sinico was desperate to rid of it, while Mr. Duffy carefully guarded it [1, p. 34-42].

Principle of Recurrence. Poetic structure of the text is so modeled that its certain elements, which have already occurred in the text, appear again at definite intervals. These recurrent elements may be a poetic detail, an image, a phrase, or a word. Its function is to give the text a dynamic flow, or to represent the leitmotif of the literary work, expressing the author’s message [5, p. 33].

For example, in A Streetcar Named Desire by T. Williams to show the sudden change in Blanche’s emotional state the author recurrently mentions that the woman hears polka music, which for her is associated with her husband’s suicide. The more Blanche’s mental state changes to disorder the louder and more frequent the music becomes. [58]

4. COMPONENTS OF POETIC STRUCTURE:

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