Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi
<p>This thesis in comparative literature explores the meanings of poetry beyond verse and the ways they influenced the creation of poetic effects in the prose of two early twentieth-century writers: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and the Italian essayist Emilio Cecchi (1884-1966). Both authors bel...
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | Italian English |
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2021
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| _version_ | 1811139303722450944 |
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| author | Leteo, M |
| author2 | Reynolds, M |
| author_facet | Reynolds, M Leteo, M |
| author_sort | Leteo, M |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>This thesis in comparative literature explores the meanings of poetry beyond verse and the ways they influenced the creation of poetic effects in the prose of two early twentieth-century writers: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and the Italian essayist Emilio Cecchi (1884-1966). Both authors believe that poetry, as a quality independent from verse, can be conveyed through prose, but they explicitly distance themselves from the kind of writing referred to as prose poetry or poetic prose. By addressing the question of poetry in prose from the perspectives of these two writers, who worked in different languages, genres and contexts, this study proposes a new method to approach the elusive category of poetic style, without reducing it to a set of techniques and devices borrowed from verse, or to a generic quest for beauty and emotional suggestiveness. I reconstruct Woolf’s and Cecchi’s notions of poetic quality as time-bound and culturally specific ideas, emerging at the crossing between intellectual influences, the reception of older literary traditions, and personal creative associations. By analysing the two authors’ prose through these lenses, I argue that for both of them engaging with poetry involves experimenting with multiple styles, where poetic and prosaic qualities are closely tied together and set in contrast in order to offer a double perspective on the topics treated or narrated. I identify different categories of poetic effects, classified according to their literary sources and/or their features: ‘Romantic-lyrical’ and ‘dramatic-choral’ in Woolf’s novels, ‘of contrast’ in Cecchi’s essays, and ‘of pure form’ in both authors. The thesis shows how Woolf’s and Cecchi’s ideas of poetry in prose strikingly overlap, particularly in associating poetry with an epiphanic feeling and an abstract design, but also stress different aspects of its broad spectrum, concluding that, to bring these specificities into focus, poetic effects in prose are best understood through cross-cultural enquiries.</p>
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:08:52Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:b37cef37-b896-4aa4-9fe1-59e52a5543e1 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | Italian English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:03:57Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b37cef37-b896-4aa4-9fe1-59e52a5543e12024-05-14T08:20:08ZPoetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio CecchiThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:b37cef37-b896-4aa4-9fe1-59e52a5543e1Modernism (Literature)Italian literatureEnglish literatureTwentieth centuryComparative literatureItalianEnglishHyrax Deposit2021Leteo, MReynolds, MStellardi, GWhitworth, MSica, B<p>This thesis in comparative literature explores the meanings of poetry beyond verse and the ways they influenced the creation of poetic effects in the prose of two early twentieth-century writers: Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) and the Italian essayist Emilio Cecchi (1884-1966). Both authors believe that poetry, as a quality independent from verse, can be conveyed through prose, but they explicitly distance themselves from the kind of writing referred to as prose poetry or poetic prose. By addressing the question of poetry in prose from the perspectives of these two writers, who worked in different languages, genres and contexts, this study proposes a new method to approach the elusive category of poetic style, without reducing it to a set of techniques and devices borrowed from verse, or to a generic quest for beauty and emotional suggestiveness. I reconstruct Woolf’s and Cecchi’s notions of poetic quality as time-bound and culturally specific ideas, emerging at the crossing between intellectual influences, the reception of older literary traditions, and personal creative associations. By analysing the two authors’ prose through these lenses, I argue that for both of them engaging with poetry involves experimenting with multiple styles, where poetic and prosaic qualities are closely tied together and set in contrast in order to offer a double perspective on the topics treated or narrated. I identify different categories of poetic effects, classified according to their literary sources and/or their features: ‘Romantic-lyrical’ and ‘dramatic-choral’ in Woolf’s novels, ‘of contrast’ in Cecchi’s essays, and ‘of pure form’ in both authors. The thesis shows how Woolf’s and Cecchi’s ideas of poetry in prose strikingly overlap, particularly in associating poetry with an epiphanic feeling and an abstract design, but also stress different aspects of its broad spectrum, concluding that, to bring these specificities into focus, poetic effects in prose are best understood through cross-cultural enquiries.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Modernism (Literature) Italian literature English literature Twentieth century Comparative literature Leteo, M Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi |
| title | Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi |
| title_full | Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi |
| title_fullStr | Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi |
| title_full_unstemmed | Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi |
| title_short | Poetic effects in prose: Virginia Woolf and Emilio Cecchi |
| title_sort | poetic effects in prose virginia woolf and emilio cecchi |
| topic | Modernism (Literature) Italian literature English literature Twentieth century Comparative literature |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT leteom poeticeffectsinprosevirginiawoolfandemiliocecchi |