Title: Defining Conventions for the Verse Epic in German: Notes on the Relationship between Codified Poetics and Poetological Paratexts in the Baroque Poetry Reform
Abstract: Martin Opitz concluded his reflection on the verse epic in his Buch von der Deutschen Poeterey (1624) by expressing his doubt that the near future would bring to light a poet capable of composing the perfect epic poem in German.1 His scepticism proved to be fully justified: No less than half a century later Daniel Georg Morhof stated in the preface to his Teutsche Gedichte (1682) that the composition of a sound verse epic was the work of a lifetime, and was accordingly a task that very few poets felt called to undertake.2 A fundamental discrepancy between poetological ambitions in the field of the verse epic and their practical implementation may be conceived of as typical of the entire baroque era. Both numerous and exacting studies of classic verse epics were made in codified poetics from the beginning of the poetry reform in the early seventeenth century in order to provide a normative framework for contemporary poets. Yet this genre actually played- despite its summit position in the hierarchy of literary genres - an astonishingly marginal role in baroque poetry.3 Most of the very few existing texts available in seventeenth- century Germany were translations, not genuinely new compositions. Nevertheless, although long neglected by literary historians, contemporary audiences viewed translations as having their own unique artistic merit as imitano and aemulatio exemplorum. These German adaptations were an indispensable tool that allowed poets to explore the genre and stake out the limits and potential of German as a poetic language. While there are numerous baroque adaptations of romance epics, the earliest including works by Guillaume de Salluste du Bartas, Torquato Tasso, and
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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