Intentionality of Poetic Discourse

Abstract

This paper provides a new conception of analysing poetic text in terms of speech act theory proceeding from Searle’s concept of intentionality, from Dijk’s view on literary speech act based on the intention of the author and from Merilai’s understanding of pragmapoetics. We argue that the author’s intention in the poetic discourse comes in two varieties: the referential and the aesthetic ones. The referential intention is the author’s attitude towards the text content. The aesthetic intention is the author’s attitude towards the language form, through which the content is expressed. Thus, two kinds of speech acts are performed simultaneously: 1) referential, based on the referential intention, involving an illocution and being fictional, as the sincerity rule is violated; 2) aesthetic, based on the aesthetic intention. The latter is a specific subtype of expressive illocution as the author's illocutionary goal is to express a positive emotional-evaluative attitude solely toward the language form, while the perlocutionary goal is to influence the reader's aesthetic feelings regarding this form. These kinds of intention are reflected at both the level of the utterance and the whole text. Thus two communication levels are taken into consideration: the vertical and horizontal ones. The poetic texts of “New objectivity”, a literary movement in German Weimar Republic in 1918–1933 have been used to observe these regularities.