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An Image of a Horseman in Gothic PoetryNejc Drnovšek, 2017, magistrsko delo
Opis: The paper analyses the image of a horseman in literary works during Romanticism with an emphasis on Gothic poetry. A horseman represents an important literary motif, which was used by numerous poets from the discussed period, although his depiction expands through the whole literary history. At the end of the eighteenth century, in times when the readers were particularly excited about Gothic literature and especially ballads, a horseman was being depicted by popular poets and writers of this genre, such as Matthew Lewis, Walter Scott and Robert Southey, and in the early years of nineteenth century, by the giants of Romanticism, such as Lord Byron and Mikhail Lermontov. The selection of numerous literary works of the aforementioned and other authors served as a recognition of patterns that were repeated in such works. The comparative analysis addresses the movement of a horseman, usually at high velocity, the relation between him and a particular literary genre, and literary devices that accompany the depiction of a horseman.
Two literary works, Robert Southey’s Gothic ballad The Old Woman of Berkeley and Lermontov’s poem Demon, are analysed in detail. In both cases, particular parts of a literary work consist of a description of a rider and his horse, which follows the characteristics from previous works discussed in the paper. However, substantial deviations in the depiction of a horseman are present in both works as well. These differences, which influenced the manner in which a horseman is depicted, arose as a consequence of numerous factors, such as past life experiences, the influence of other poets and their literary works, religious and political convictions, and discrepancies in translations, namely in the poem Demon. The examples from the Southey’s ballad and Lermontov’s poem confirm such thinking.
On the basis of numerous examples of the depiction of a horseman in the discussed period and reccurring patterns, it was possible to draw conclusions about the universal features of a horse, both its personality and physical characteristics, about the interpersonal relationship between a rider and his steed, about their relation based on the structural level and about the role of the context and its influence on the findings.
Ključne besede: horseman, Gothic ballad, Romantic literature, Robert Southey, Mikhail Lermontov, The Demon
Objavljeno v DKUM: 11.10.2017; Ogledov: 1451; Prenosov: 111
Celotno besedilo (1,17 MB)
