Roman Jakobson stands alone in his semiotic theory of poetic analysis which combines semiotics, linguistics and structuralist poetics. This groundbreaking book proposes methods for developing Jakobson's theories of communication and poetic function. It provides an extensive range of examples of the kinds of Formalist praxis that have been neglected in recent years, developing them for the analysis of all poetry but, especially, the poetry of our urban future. Throughout the book the parameters of a city poetic genre are proposed and established; the book also develops the theory of the function of shifters and deixis with special reference to women as narrators. It also instantiates an experimental oetic praxis based on the work of one of Jakobson's great influences, Charles Sanders Peirce. Steadfastly adhering tothe text in itself, this volume reveals the often surprising, hitherto unconsidered structural and semiotic patterns within poems as a whole.
Mary Coghill, Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Humanities, Russian Department, Exeter University UK.
The purpose of this book is firstly, to re-examine, and then develop, Jakobson’s theories of Poetic Function and Communication (Chapters One and Two); secondly, to provide an increased range of examples of Formalist praxis; thirdly, to apply these theories to the analysis of city poetry with the intention of establishing a city poetic genre; and, lastly, to provide a basis for understanding Formalist praxis as a structural process which does not force the analyst to either use the full range of Formalist techniques, nor apply them to an entire poem. The current author’s principal focus is semiotic rather than linguistic. Jakobson’s legacy is extensive. The focus here is to take advantage of his research – to revisit, re-investigate, apply and develop it – adding to the body of knowledge in the fields of linguistics, semiotics and poetics. It is accepted throughout this book that Roman Jakobson’s theory of Poetic Function combines semiotics, linguistics and poetics. An additional focus is the application of these theories and praxis to city poetry, with a specific emphasis on the woman narrator. These areas of research provide further material for the establishment of a city poetic genre.
Roman Jakobson’s interest in linguistics, when considering poetry, was constantly super-imposed by the demands of the poetic text. From his early days he recognised that both pictorial art and, to a lesser extent, mathematics, played a part in enabling analysis of the text. From these two disciplines he derived his interest in the shape of poetry – its form and linked meanings; and from mathematics he derived his interest in the possibility of expressing those shapes in diagrammatic form. His interest in linguistics, especially phonemes, was largely shaped by his contemporary in Prague – Trubetzkoy (1939). His series of lectures “Six Lectures in Sound and Meaning” (1978[1942]) develop his links with Saussure and the axes of language. Jakobson continued to be inspired by Saussure’s work throughout his life, adding to it, amongst others, an interest in the semiotic systems of Charles Sanders Peirce. But his linguistic interest was always placed within the context of the larger units of word, sentence and textual whole. His interest in poetry further pushed him towards analysis of the construction of the whole poem as a unit. His interest in phonemes, for example, was expressed through his interest in the bigger picture. He writes in his lecture
