Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk

(The reflections of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski on the hermeneutics and the cognitive and ethical functions of poetry)

Year of publication: 2015
Page range: 15 (5-19)
Keywords: poetry, conformity, interpretation, ethics, hermeneutics, res-verba conformity, elocution, disposition, invention, rhetoric, poet
Author: Jakub Fischer (Adama Mickiewicz University)

Abstract

The article presents the reflections of Maciej Kazimierz Sarbiewski (1595–1640, Polish Jesuit, Latin poet) on the poetry and the rhetoric of his two treatises: Characteres lyrici and De figuris sententiarum. The comments are focused on the very interesting aspects in the poetry: the compatibility of all elements, the subsection of the emotional expression to the thinking process of the author (the poet) and the cognitive and ethical role of the poetry (the poet being the creator and observer of the world, the philosopher, the teacher, the artist and the theorist). Sarbiewski also comments on the issue of balance between the subject of the poet and the subject of the receiver, the reader once the poetry is simultaneously creative and honest.

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