Poetics and Time -- An Introduction to Theological Poetics

Author: Liu Guangyao
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: This book is dedicated to the originality and systematic clarification of self-aware literary cognition as an entity-based literary cognitive method, which is the intuitive manifestation of human "being-in-the-moment." The "being-in-the-moment" of humans has three dimensions—present, past, and future—thus genres are divided into three types: lyrical, narrative, and dramatic, each expressing human existence in the present ("Who am I"), the past ("Where do I come from"), and the future ("Where am I going"). They are also associated with emotion—literature of listening, reason—literature of seeing, and will—literature of belief. Since existence exists in the world according to its own "image" and the "pattern" of creating the temporal aspects of its logical elements within itself, and since the Christian portrayal of the Trinity as the "being-itself" of God is clearly more truthful, the three aspects of human "being-in-the-moment" and the three genres correspond to the Trinity of God. Whether in terms of chronological order or their intrinsic poetic qualities and functions, the three genres exhibit isomorphic relationships with the three persons of God, each ultimately leading to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Based on this foundation, the book offers new interpretations of the epistemological characteristics of various genres, their related stylistic features, and numerous fundamental poetic categories and concepts such as "representation," "reproduction," and "imitation." It also proposes a series of new concepts and categories, demonstrating a new path that leads theology toward poetics and poetics toward theology.