On the Shore of Nothingness: Space, Rhythm, and Semantic Structure in Religious Poetry and Its Mystic-Secular CounterpartThis book studies how poetic structure transforms verbal imitations of religious experience into concepts. The book investigates how such a conceptual language can convey such non-conceptual experiences as meditation, ecstasy or mystic insights. Briefly, it explores how the poet, by using words, can express the 'ineffable'. It submits to close reading English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Armenian and Hebrew texts, from the Bible, through medieval, renaissance, metaphysical, and baroque poetry, to romantic and symbolistic poetry. |
From inside the book
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Page 10
... 12. “Light, Fire, Prison: A Cognitive Analysis of Religious Imagery in Poetry”. This chapter explores the cognitive foundations and the literary applications of spatial imagery. There seem to be several good reasons to have recourse.
... 12. “Light, Fire, Prison: A Cognitive Analysis of Religious Imagery in Poetry”. This chapter explores the cognitive foundations and the literary applications of spatial imagery. There seem to be several good reasons to have recourse.
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... spatial imagery may help the cognitive system to overcome some of its inherent limitations. Thus, fast-changing or lowly-differentiated information may be recoded into a more stable and differentiated spatial template, as in the case of ...
... spatial imagery may help the cognitive system to overcome some of its inherent limitations. Thus, fast-changing or lowly-differentiated information may be recoded into a more stable and differentiated spatial template, as in the case of ...
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... spatial orientation. Some brain scientists (e.g., Marcel Kinsbourne) assume that both kinds of processes consist of streams of information describable in terms of semantic features. It will be suggested in chapter 4 that the semantic ...
... spatial orientation. Some brain scientists (e.g., Marcel Kinsbourne) assume that both kinds of processes consist of streams of information describable in terms of semantic features. It will be suggested in chapter 4 that the semantic ...
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... spatial concept is trivial in itself, perhaps a dead metaphor. Two aspects of the text turn the spatial concept into the perception of a spatial presence. The implied phrase “gates of Eternity” turns the spatial concept into “concrete ...
... spatial concept is trivial in itself, perhaps a dead metaphor. Two aspects of the text turn the spatial concept into the perception of a spatial presence. The implied phrase “gates of Eternity” turns the spatial concept into “concrete ...
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... spatial orientation mechanisms in poetry (as well as in meditation) may activate certain diffuse mental processes that underlie altered states of consciousness. The image of the poet standing on the shore of the wide world vis-a-vis the ...
... spatial orientation mechanisms in poetry (as well as in meditation) may activate certain diffuse mental processes that underlie altered states of consciousness. The image of the poet standing on the shore of the wide world vis-a-vis the ...
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On the Shore of Nothingness: Space, Rhythm, and Semantic Structure in ... Reuven Tsur Limited preview - 2003 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract Andreas Gryphius aspects Auschwitz Baroque boundaries chapter characteristic cognitive Cognitive Poetics composition of place conception conceptual metaphor consciousness context contrast convergent device diffuse discussed Donne Donne’s ecstatic effect Ehrenzweig elements emotional evoke excerpt fire focus function gestalt-free Hebrew Herbert’s human Ibn Gabirol imagery instance intense kind language light man’s Martz meaning meditation mental metaphor metaphysical poetry metonymy Milton mystic experience mystic poetry nature Neo-Platonic nothingness noun numinous objects one’s orientation Paradise Lost paradox passage pattern perceived perception periphrasis phrase physical Platonic poem poet poetic position potentials predicate present prosodic quatrain quoted reader reality reference reinforced religious poetry rhyme rhythm romantic romantic poetry Rudolf Otto semantic sense sestet sonnet soul spatial speech sounds stanza structure sublime suggests syllables syntactic thing-free tion transcendence trochaic Tsur Tyger typically undifferentiated verb verbal verse visual shapes witty words Wordsworth’s world picture