The Dialogicality In John Donne's Poetry

Controversial as he is,John Donne is the most important figure of the Metaphysical School.Donne's reputation as a poet is full of ups and downs,accompanied by different evaluations from critics.Since its revival in the early twentieth century,Donne's poetry has been studied from different perspectives with different literary theories.Although the studies on Donne's poetry have reached an unprecedented breadth and depth,none of them seems to have been made directly from a dialogical perspective.Based on previous relevant criticism,this dissertation aims to analyze the dialogicality in Donne's poetry with the theories of Bakhtin's dialogism and intertextuality.The methods and theories of the New Criticism,cultural studies and Newhistoricism are also used when appropriate.The study of the dialogicality in Donne's poetry will interpret his poems in the historical and cultural context.Taking into consideration the relative factors such as literary works,literary traditions,social reality and the life experiences of the poet,it breaks through the New Critical notion of a self-contained text and will facilitate a better understanding of Donne and his unique poetry.Besides an introduction and a conclusion,this dissertation falls into four chapters.The introduction covers a literature review,a general introduction to Bakhtin's dialogism and intertextuality theory,a brief discussion of the feasibility and significance of a study of dialogicality in poetry.It also presents the research methodology,the general structure,and basic views of this study.Chapter One expounds the dialogues with or within the poet's self in Donne's poetry.Not only the conflict between his secular pursuit and social reality,but also his different attitudes toward the topics such as love,faith,ration and salvation,are revealed in his poetry.The contradictions in his poems reflect confrontations of his different ideologies and of his selfs,or dialogues in his inner world,of which the outside reality is the external influence and his skepticism the internal cause.Chapter Two analyzes double-voiced words and polyphonic features in Donne's poetry.Double-voiced words in Donne's poetry are caused by the social and cultural contexts of English Renaissance.They also find their appearance in Donne's dramatic monologues and his frequently used figures of speech like puns and paradoxes.Polyphonic features in Donne's poetry are demonstrated by the interwoven voices of love,politics,and religion.The juxtaposition of various schools of thought and the blending of different traditions create polyphony in Donne's poetry.Both the double-voiced words and the polyphonic features have their social and cultural origins.They are essential to the interpretation of Donne s poetry.Chapter Three studies carnivalization in Donne s poetry.Various forms of literary carnivalization,such as the structure of coronation-and-decoronation,the lowering down of the spirit by the body,and grotesque realism,enter Donne's poetry and produce dialogues.Meanwhile,the language of Donne's poetry may exert a deconstructive power when it tries to establish a character and give out an authoritative voice,which helps make a dual character and a dual voice,thus embodying a carnival spirit,an important feature of carnival dialogues in Donne's poetry.Chapter Four discusses intertextuality in Donne's poetry.With Bloom's theory of intertextuality,this chapter explores Donne's intertextual writing in his creation of love poetry and religious poetry.Donne absorbs some characteristics of Petrarchan poetry,Ovid tradition,and medieval aubades,yet he brings about changes and creates more realistic and humanistic love poetry.Donne's religious poetry inherits Christian tradition but expresses a more personal conflict between humanity and divinity.The mapping relation between some of Donne's divine poems and his love poems manifests his self-examination and spiritual growth.The conclusion summarizes the basic views of this dissertation,holding that the rich and diversified dialogicality in Donne's poetry is not only the joined result of his times and the poet himself,but also the very important embodiment of the uniqueness of Donne's poetry.The dialogicality in Donne's poetry thus may be one of the effective approaches to enriching the study of Donne and his poetry.It will definitely ensure more,and even infinite interpretations of Donne's poetry.