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‘Look Again’, ‘Listen, Listen’, ‘Keep Looking’: Emergent Properties and Sensorimotor Imagining in Mary Oliver’s Poetry

Banks, Kathryn

‘Look Again’, ‘Listen, Listen’, ‘Keep Looking’: Emergent Properties and Sensorimotor Imagining in Mary Oliver’s Poetry Thumbnail


Authors



Contributors

Terence Cave
Editor

Deirdre Wilson
Editor

Abstract

This chapter offers a way of understanding the effects of poetic images (metaphorical or literal). It employs and extends the notion of ‘emergent properties’, as well as relevance theory’s account of how communicative acts can ‘show’ as much as they mean. The images examined are from poems by Mary Oliver (‘Wings’, ‘Wild Geese’, and ‘Mindful’). The chapter suggests that such poetry is particularly in need of a new theoretical approach capable of engaging with its focus on embodied experience and ‘merging’ with nature. It shows how ‘emergent properties’—for example, a complex sense of what continuity with nature might feel like—can result from engaging in a range of imaginary sensorimotor experiences. The final section of the chapter turns to an abstract painting by Natalia Wróbel which dialogues with Oliver’s poetry, and fleshes out the relevance theory account of communicative showing to articulate differences between artistic genres and media.

Citation

Banks, K. (2018). ‘Look Again’, ‘Listen, Listen’, ‘Keep Looking’: Emergent Properties and Sensorimotor Imagining in Mary Oliver’s Poetry. In T. Cave, & D. Wilson (Eds.), Reading Beyond the Code: Literature and Relevance Theory (129-148). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198794776.003.0008

Acceptance Date Jan 13, 2016
Online Publication Date May 29, 2018
Publication Date 2018-05
Deposit Date Sep 4, 2017
Publicly Available Date Nov 1, 2021
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 129-148
Book Title Reading Beyond the Code: Literature and Relevance Theory.
Chapter Number 7
ISBN 9780198794776
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198794776.003.0008

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Published Book Chapter (1.2 Mb)
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Copyright Statement
‘Look Again’, ‘Listen, Listen’, ‘Keep Looking’: Emergent Properties and Sensorimotor Imagining in Mary Oliver’s Poetry by Banks, Kathryn. In Reading Beyond the Code: Literature and Relevance Theory edited by Cave, Terence
and Wilson, Deirdre, 2018, reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780198794776.003.0008




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