This study takes a structural approach to narrative in short poems (under 300 lines) by British and American poets of the 20th-century, using examples by a wide range of poets to investigate a number of narrative tactics and to consider their importance in relation to several of the major poetic forms of this century: portraiture, symbolism, confessionalism, surrealism, and reflexivity. / The introduction outlines some causes for the critical neglect of narrative in short poems and calls for a reappraisal of the terms lyric and narrative as they apply to such works. Chapter 2 considers the influence of point of view and narrative focalization on the unity and dramatic complexity of portrait poems by Masters, Robinson, Pound, Frost, Levertov, and Jarrell. Chapter 3 covers such topics as narrative's promotion of psychological symbolism, narrative time and the timeless world of symbols, narrative's power to support symbolism directly or create ironies, and symbolism's completion of the action of the narrative. Poets discussed: Yeats, Frost, Lawrence, Roethke, and Dickey. Chapter 4, "Confessionalism and Narrative", deals with several issues: the inclusion of personal and cultural history; the multiple focalization created by the union of narrator, character, and poet; the need to include the materials of everyday life; the fictionalization of the self; and the psychoanalytical-like aspects of narrative transformations. Lowell's "My Last Afternoon with Uncle Devereux Winslow" is discussed at length. Chapter 5 investigates the experimentalism resulting from the surrealist attempts to overthrow the illusions of realism which are the goal of many narratives. Poets discussed: O'Hara, Ignatow, James Tate, and Louis Simpson. Chapter 6 looks at the fabula/sjuzet distinction outlined by the Russian Formalists and applies the concepts to a discussion of reflexivity in poems by Ashbery, Strand, Dubie, and Simpson. The conclusion asserts that invention in structure is extremely important in the narrative of short poems and that two kinds of "inner necessity"--that of the poet and that of the narrative structure--work together to control the invention and create significant poetic narratives. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 46-08, Section: A, page: 2297. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1985.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75605 |
| Contributors | BENSKO, JOHN RICHARD., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 303 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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