Professional Documents
Culture Documents
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
The Johns Hopkins University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to
New Literary History.
http://www.jstor.org
Poetryas Fiction
BarbaraHermstein
Smith
fond
RADOXES makeintriguing
titles,but I am not otherwise
of themand intend,by the end of thisarticle,to dissolvethe
theproposionethatentitles
it. I meanto do thisbyelaborating
is thecharacteristic
of
call
what
we
tionthatfictiveness
"poetry"
quality
whenwe use thetermin thebroadsensebequeathedby Aristotle,
i.e.,
to referto thegeneralclassof verbalartworks.My primaryconcern
willbe to developa conception
of poetrythatallowsus to distinguish
it fromand relateit to bothnonpoeticdiscourseand otherartforms.
The viewpresented
herewas initially,
butratherincidentally,
proposed
elsewhere.'I have foundthe elaborationof it of continuing
interest,
and the
however,especiallysincethe groundsforthosedistinctions
natureofthoserelationships
remain,to mymind,extremely
problemand aesthetic
aticincontemporary
linguistic
theory.
Sincemyprocedurein whatfollowsmayseeminitially
perplexing,
someprefatory
remarks
maypreventconfusion.Firstof all, I shallbe
at
sayinga good deal aboutlanguagein generalbeforeI say anything
all aboutpoetry.Anytheoryof poetryinevitably,
thoughnot always
a theoryoflanguage.Thus,thosewho have at
presupposes
explicitly,
varioustimesregardedpoetryas inspired
speech,or embellished
prose,
orthelanguageofpassion,or"emotive"statements,
haveobviously
had
different
notionsofwhatlanguageis whenit is notpoetrysomewhat
speech,plain prose,thelanguageof reason,or "verie.g.,uninspired
fiablestatements."
Since,moreover,
linguistic
theoryis nowin a very
volatilestate,no generalpropositions
concerning
languagecan be offeredcasuallyor takenforgranted.(One can oftentellmoreabouta
now fromhis viewsof languagethan
man's politicsand metaphysics
one oncecouldfromhisclassor religion.)In anycase,althoughI am
thatcould be called a theoryof
hereanything
by no meansoffering
sectionofthisarticlewilldevelopsomegeneraloblanguage,thefirst
or whatI call "natural"discourse,
on nonpoetic
servations
particularly
in distinguishing
it from
in thoserespectsthat are mostsignificant
I
Poetic Closure: A Study of How Poems End (Chicago, 1968), esp. pp.
14-25.
260
I
By "natural discourse,"I mean here all utterances- trivialor sublime, ill-wroughtor eloquent,true or false,scientificor passionatethat can be taken as someone's saying something,somewhere,sometime: i.e., as the verbal acts of real personson particularoccasionsin
responseto particularsets of circumstances.In stressingall theseparticularities,I wish to emphasizethat a natural utteranceis an historical event: like any otherevent,it occupies a specificand unique point
in time and space. A natural utteranceis thus an eventin the same
senseas the Coronationof Elizabeth I on January15, 1559, or the departurethismorningfromAlbany of AlleghenyAirlinesFlight617, or
the fallingof a certainleaf froma certainelm tree. Other eventsmore
or less resemblingthesein various respectsmay occur at othertimesor
in otherplaces, but the eventitself-that coronation,that flight,that
utterance- cannot recur,forit is historically
unique.
The point requiresemphasisbecause it reflectsa fundamentaldistinctionthat may be drawn between natural utterancesand certain
whichare not historicaleventsand which can
otherlinguisticstructures
be both definedand describedindependentlyof any particularinstance
of occurrence.Dictionaryentries,forexample,or what we referto abstractlyas "the word fire"or "the phraselaw and order"are not themselvesparticularevents;theyare, rather,linguisticforms,or the names
of certaintypesor classesof events. And, as such, certainobservations
may be made about them: for example, the morphemicor phonetic
POETRY AS FICTION
26I
features
thatdefineall members
oftheclass,or thesyntactic
rulesgovtheir
in
of
use
or, course,thecharerning
accepted
Englishsentences,
in whichtheydo occuras part
features
ofthecircumstances
acteristic
- in otherwords,their"dictionary
ofutterances
meanings."Butthese
etc.
not
historical
forms
are
themselves
words,phrases,
linguistic
ofparticular
eventsunlessoruntiltheyoccuras theverbalresponses
personson particularoccasions.Obviously"thewordfire"as a general
classis a verydifferent
sortofthingfroma specific
utterance,
"Fire!",
whichmaywarna manthathislifeis in dangerorsenda bulletspeedcircumstances
ingtowardhim,verymuchdependingon theparticular
inwhichtheutterance
occursand to whichitis a response.
not onlyoccursin a particularset of circumA naturalutterance
- but is also underoften
referred
to as itscontext
stances whatis
In otherwords,the
those
circumstances.
stoodas beinga responseto
not
of
utterance
"context" an
does
historical
merelysurroundit but
context
ofan utterance,
it
into
The
existence.
occasionsit,brings
then,
but
or
ofnotsimplyas itsgrossexternal physicalsetting,
is bestthought
its
in
determined
that
fact
has
ratheras the totalset of conditions
us
what
makes
of
and form.2That totalset conditions,
occurrence
say
structure
timeand also shapesthelinguistic
at a particular
something
ourintonawordswe choose,oursyntax,
ofourutterance-thespecific
how
no
matter
tion,etc.-is likelyto be manifoldand complex
simple
thatdetermines
the utterance.Moreover,the totalset of conditions
to theobjects
whatwe say and howwe speakis byno meansconfined
of
variouspertheorists
and events"spokenabout,"or whatlinguistic
or "sigsuasionsreferto as "referents,"
"denotations,"
"designations,"
nifications."
ofan objector eventor even,as
It is worthnotingthattheexistence
to it verreasonforresponding
we say,an "idea," is nevera sufficient
a sufis
never
is
true
that
the
fact
In
other
words,
something
bally.
five
"It's
to
heard
I
should
be
it.
If
for
reason
ficient
say,
saying
than
more
o'clock,"thereasonsformysayingso wouldclearlyinclude
2 Since the term context has been acquiring increased currencyin contemporary
aesthetics and linguistics,I should point out that it is not my intention here to
quarrel with or qualify the sense it bears for other theorists. It might have been
better to discover or devise another term altogether for what I am here defining
and later elaborating,but the alternativesthat presented themselvesseemed just as
likely to create comparable confusions,and I confess to a temperamental loathing
of neologisms. It should also be noted that, in proposing that we view the context
of an utterance not merelyas its physical settingbut as the totalityof its determinants, I am not so much broadening the ordinaryreferenceof the term as affirming
the existence and significanceof a particular relation, namely causality, between a
verbal event and the universe in which it occurs. Defined in termsof that relationship, the "context" of an utterance inevitably refersto somethingmore extensive
than what the common use of the term suggests,but also somethingmore particular.
262
POETRY AS FICTION
263
264
POETRY AS FICTION
265
266
POETRY AS FICTION
267
II
Poems are not natural utterances,not historicallyunique verbal acts
or events; indeed a poem is not an event at all, and cannot be said
ever to have "occurred" in the usual sense. When we read the textof
a poem or hear it read aloud, our responseto it as a linguisticstructure
is governedby quite special conventions,and it is the understanding
that these conventionsare operatingthat distinguishesthe poem as a
verbal artworkfromnaturaldiscourse. The operationof theseconventionsis mostreadilyapparentin dramaticpoetry,i.e., plays,whereit is
268
NEWLITERARY
HISTORY
POETRY AS FICTION
269
fromother
and two, as it may be distinguished
othermimeticartforms,
verbal compositions.As a mimeticartform,what a poem distinctively
and characteristically
representsis not images, ideas, feelings,characor
but
discourse. Poetrydoes, like drama, represent
ters,scenes, worlds,
actionsand events,but exclusivelyverbal ones. And, as a verbal comnot a natural
and characteristically
position,a poem is distinctively
of
one.
the
but
utterance,
representation
discoursein thesame senseas a play,in itstotality,
A poem represents
representshuman actions and events,or a painting representsvisual
objects. When we speak of the objects representedin or by a painting,
it is understoodthattheyneed not correspondto any particularobjects,
but ratherto an identifiableclass of them. A paintingcan depict a
landscape that exists as a visual object only in the depiction itself.
in an artwork,we
Thus, when we speak of mimesisor representation
recognizethat it does not constitutethe imitationor reproductionof
existingobjects or events,but ratherthe fabricationof fictiveobjects
and eventsof which thereare existingor possibleinstancesor typeswhetherthey be rural landscapes, star-crossedlovers,or laments for
dead friends. In otherwords, to say that an artisthas representeda
certainobject or eventis to say that he has constructeda fictivemember of an identifiableclass of natural (real) objectsor events.
Part of what has obscuredthe relationof poetic mimesisto pictorial
and other kinds of artisticrepresentationare traditionalnotionsthat
identifythe various artformsin terms of their characteristicmedia.
Thus, sound is said to be the medium of music, pigmentthe medium
of painting,and of course words or language the medium of poetry.
The corollaryformula-X (artwork) representsY (object of imitation) in Z (medium)--has created more problemsthan it has illuminated, most conspicuously,perhaps, in regard to music, where art
underthe presumedobligationto locate the object that music
theorists,
have
come up with an amazing assortmentof chimeras,from
imitates,
of
shapes feelingto statesofbeing. It is anotherproblem,however,that
concernsus here. The plasticmaterialsthat are presumablythe media
of the visual arts- pigment,stone,metal,and so forth- do not have
an expressivefunctionindependentof the artworksinto which theyare
fashioned. These materials,moreover,do not in themselvesresemble
the objects and scenesthattheyrepresent.A block of marble is a very
different
thingfroma human figure. The correspondingmedium of
however,
language, is not a "raw" material,but itselfa sympoetry,
bolic systemwith expressivefunctionsindependentof its use in artto conceiveof language as
works. For thisreason,it has been difficult
by it.
boththe mediumof an artworkand also what is represented
traditional
the
is
The difficulty
concept of the
here,however, really
270
POETRY AS FICTION
27I
272
POETRY AS FICTION
273
274
POETRY AS FICTION
275
276
tonestosomeoneuponwhom
in suchbitter
speakeris saying"farewell"
he thoughtto have some claimsof love,the readerwill not require
and
concerning
anyparticulars
privatelife: theidentity
Shakespeare's
ofwhatever
moralcharacter
youngmenhe knewat thetime,thespeor
fromwhichhe mayhavesuffered,
ofpersonalbetrayal
cificincidents
is
the
as a lover. Whatthereaderdoes require
hisopinionof himself
thatmightlead a man to
capacityto conceiveofthekindofsituation
and
the
reader
can
and
feelthus
developthatcapacityonly
speakthus,
theirfeelings,
and
withmen,theirsituations,
outofhisownexperiences
their
especially language.
utterance
of a poemas an historical
The interpretation
may serve
orbiographer,
butitis likehistorian
oftheliterary
thespecialpurposes
to thedeor "literal-minded"
precisely
lyto appearshallow,reductive,
the contextof the poem to historicalparticularsand
greethatit restricts
POETRY AS FICTION
277
278
POETRY AS FICTION
279
of literaryhistory
subjectivists:thosewho, scorningthe revelations
and scholarship,
wouldmaintainthatall and anymeaningsof a poem
are essentially
the
"personal"and equallyvalid. This is not,however,
In
of
the
case. speaking
createdor projectedbythereader,I
contexts
have repeatedly
usedthetermplausible;and althoughI have seemed
to be saying"If themeaningfits,
wearit,"I havealso impliedthatthe
and plausibility
relateto verysignificant
meaningmustfit.Thisfitness
on interpretation
constraints
thatarethemselves
amongtheconventions
of fictivediscourse.Thoughtheseconstraints
in manyrespects
differ
fromthoseinvolvedin ourinterpretations
ofnaturaldiscourse,
theyare
nevertheless
and althoughthereare inevitably
substantial;
groundsfor
in determining
themforindividualpoems,theyare neverargument
theless
relatively
objective.
thepoem,will have made certainassumpThe poet,in composing
his audience,specifically
thattheyare membersof a
tionsregarding
and thusable and willingto
and culturalcommunity,
sharedlinguistic
abide by relevantlinguistic,
conventions.
cultural,and indeedliterary
of a poemare ignorantofthose
To thedegreethatourinterpretations
or violatetheseconventions,
we are notthatpoem'saudiassumptions
usewe maybe makingofit,we are notresponding
ence,and whatever
toitas whatitis.
ofdiscourse,
we can understand
Althougha poemis a representation
our
for
withthe
infer
it,
meanings it, onlythrough priorexperiences
natural
in
utterances
historical
sortof thingit does represent,
namely
thathisreaderhas a knowledge
contexts.The poetassumes,
therefore,
the
conventions
ofthelanguagerepresented
by
poemand thelinguistic
ofan utterance
toitsmeanings
in thatlanguage.
thatgoverntherelation
convention
can hardlybe separated
However,as we all know,linguistic
theword"God"
The readerwhoencounters
fromculturalconvention.
it
in a poembya seventeenth-century
is notfreetointerpret
Englishman
as thedeityoftheMuslimsor Hopi Indians,anymorethanhe is freeto
of
of Elizabethas thecrowning
a paintingofthecoronation
interpret
thepoetwillassumethathisreaders
theQueen ofSiam.Furthermore,
his composition
as one of a kind- a genre
are capableofidentifying
- ofartwork,
ofinterpreting
it in relationto thosegenand therefore
thatoperatedforhim in composingit.
eric and artisticconventions
withtheformsand traditional
Thusthereaderwhois quiteunfamiliar
Comusforthescriptofan ordiofthemasque,and mistakes
functions
it improperly.
narytheatricalcomedy,will obviouslybe interpreting
are not to be conWe shouldnoteherethatthe poet'sassumptions
fusedwith his intentions.Whereas the latter- his intentions- are
the former
specific,personal,and can onlybe surmizedor hypothesized,
280
281
POETRY AS FICTION
forany
could be offered
and the same sortof doubleinterpretation
poem.
a morefundamental
reflects
This double aspectof interpretation
ofartitself.As
indeedtheduplicity
in thenatureofpoetry,
doubleness
we view the canvas,the myriadspotsof paint assumethe guiseof
naturalobjectsin the visual world,but we are nevertheless
always
ofthemas spotsofpaint.As we watchtheplay,thestage
half-conscious
of the actorsyieldto thoseof the
recedesand the personalidentities
we clap our
fictions
whomtheyportray,
butwhen,at thefinalcurtain,
the
but
it
not
whom
we
are
is
Hamlet
hands,
performers
applauding,
and the playwright
himself.The illusionsof art are neverdelusions.
and movesus bothas thethingrepreThe artwork
interests,
impresses,
sentedand as the representing
itself: as the actionsand passionsof
PrinceHamletand as theachievement
ofWilliamShakespeare,
as the
of
men-and
as
the
fictions.
speech
poet's
BENNINGTON COLLEGE