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Abstract(s)
In this paper, we shall consider the emergence and significance of gestalt theory in the research of perception (both pragmatic and aesthetic), and moreover the importance this theory has recently acquired in the study of language, the medium of literary art, and in the cognitive oriented research of literature. We will conclude with the consideration of a particular text, Peter Weiss' Der Schatten des Körpers des Kutschers, in which the gestalt notions of figure and ground are manipulated to generate ambiguity and to delay aesthetic perception on multiple layers: On the level of the semantic content, the text tells about an inverted or abnormal way of perceiving the world and interacting with it; on the level of formal composition, this inversion persists, conveyed by linguistic strategies that create ambiguity between figure and ground in expression; and on the level of reception, as the reader progressively shifts attention from the content to the form, in the quest for the meaning of the text. It is our claim that this continuity in the experience of this text is not just illustrated by gestalt concepts: it is revealed in their use.
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Keywords
gestalt theory narrative of perception cognitive poetics imagery Peter Weiss
Citation
ABRANTES, Ana Margarida - Gestalt, Perception and Literature. Journal of Literary Theory [on-line]. 2:2 (2009) 181–196. Disponível na Internet: http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/jlt.2009.2.issue-2/jlt.2008.014/jlt.2008.014.xml .ISSN: 1862-8990
Publisher
De Gruyter