Fantastic and Romantic: Generic Multiplicity of John Keats’ “Lamia”

Abstract

This study focuses on the intergeneric structure of a Romantic poem, “Lamia” (1820). Since the scholars have mostly studied the long narrative poem from the respect of its origins and the influences of the previous literary sources, the study concentrates on the poem’s generic nature by specifying its concern to the fantastic with the romantic qualities in the poem by referring to peculiar examples. The interconnection between romantic and fantastic elements and the transitions from one quality to another are other concerns of the study. The study starts with an attempt to define the term genre and the genre of the fantastic through “Lamia” as a multiple text and with references to the works of Fishelov, Todorov and Calvino. The study continues with the discussion of the multiplicity of “Lamia” through its different meanings changing in accordance with certain dichotomies such as the symbolic and the imaginary, the corporeal and the abstract, the mythic past and the linearity. The constant intrusions of the outer world through some characters or events and the glimpses of hope coming from the inner world suggest the various tension levels throughout the poem as well. The study concludes that reunification of the poetic personas with the subjective world can only be possible with the unleashing power of fantasy in the poem. Thus, in the presence of Enlightenment ideology, Lamia as a mythological figure and an authentic woman embodies the possibility of an alternate existence through the fantastic.

Keywords

• Keats
• Lamia
• fantastic
• Romanticism
• genre

Düşsel ve Romantik: Keats’in “Lamia”sında Türsel Çeşitlilik

Öz

Bu çalışma Romantik bir şiir örneği olan “Lamia” içindeki edebi türler arası yapıya odaklanmaktadır. Şiiri inceleyenler daha çok şiirin kökenleri ve kendinden önce gelen eserlerden ne derece etkilendiği yönünde çalıştıklarından bu çalışma, metinden seçilen örneklerle ve şiir içindeki fantastik (düşsel) ve romantik öğeler arasındaki ilişki vasıtasıyla şiirin türsel yapısına yoğunlaşır. Romantik ve fantastik öğeler arasındaki bağlantı ve bir özellikten diğerine şeklinde görülen geçişler de çalışmanın diğer odağıdır. Çalışma tür tanımını çoklu bir metin olarak “Lamia” ekseninde Todorov, Fishelov ve Calvino’nun görüşlerine atıfta bulunarak yapmaya çalışır, “Lamia”nın anlamsal zenginliğini şiir içindeki imgesel-simgesel, somut-soyut, mitik zaman-doğrusal zaman gibi karşıtlıklarla gösterir. Dış dünyanın sürekli müdahalesi ve iç dünyadan gelen umut kırıntıları da şiirdeki çeşitli seviyelerdeki gerilimi yansıtır. Çalışma, şiirde şiir kişilerinin öznel olan dünyayla iletişimin ancak düşsel olan vasıtasıyla kurulabileceğinin sonucuna varır. Hem mitolojik bir figür hem de gerçek bir kadın olarak Lamia, şiirin son bölümde gösterildiği gibi düşsel olan aracılığıyla Aydınlanma fikrinin mevcudiyetinde başka bir varoluşun da mümkün olduğunu somutlaştırır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Keats
• Lamia
• düşsel
• Romantik akım
• tür

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