Logocentricity or Difference :: essays research papers

In many donnish and scientific investigations there are three stages of development. The first involves the identification of the depicted object or phenomenon under investigation. The second involves establishing a theory or guessing to explain the nature and characteristics of whatever is to be investigated. In the third var. the investigator seeks to apply theory to or so procedure of analysis, perhaps in the form of a practical application of knowledge to a reach of tasks. What is the "subject" of the present study? It is not some clearly delineate topic such as the behaviour of a certain miscellany of animal or the molecular structure of certain chemicals. The subject is a verbal phenomenon, or - to be very cautious - a assertable verbal phenomenon. Do the titles of poems by Goethe and the German Romantics in which the word "Wandrer" occurs and do occurrences of the verb "to wander" in English poetry reflect the same phenomenon? By way of an ana logy with a court case, I will direct a number of witnesses and first among them, translators who rendered the German "Wand(e)rer" in the titles of German poetical works as " spider" in English. In fact William of Norwichs reading of Goethes "Der Wandrer" actually exerted a demonstrable influence on William Wordsworth, affecting his theatrical role of the word "Wanderer" in his own poetry. "Wanderers Night-Songs" demonstrates that for Longfellow the English word "Wanderer" Henry Wadsworth Longfellows rendition of the title "Wandrers Nachtlied" as captured better than any some other the sum total effect of the word "Wand(e)rer" in Goethes poem. To the second clan of witness belong critics who apply the word "Wanderer" or a form of verb "to wander" to their critical evaluations, evidently locating the same inter-group communication of themes and problems whether they are writing about German or Engl ish poetry. deuce critics have in my view already identified the phenomenon with which I am concerned - Professor L. A.Willoughby in his discussions of Goethes poetry and Geoffrey H. Hartman in his discussions of English romanticism. Their conclusions coincide when they refer to the main protagonist in Goethes Faust drama as a "Wanderer". I see my task in integrating and correlating their arguments and insights, and to do this with any degree of objectivity I discuss at some length J. Tynjanovs theories concerning "the Word" in poetry. I also attempt to cancel any monocausal explanation of the phenomenon identified by myself and others (though my perception of the scope of this phenomenon is wider than in the case of the two scholars I have mentioned).