Double Image Cohesion In Visual Poetry

Since the theory of cohesion was put forward by Halliday and Hasan, many scholars have made further study and achieved much in this field. They proposed new methods in the classification of cohesive devices, such as explicit cohesion and implicit cohesion.Visual poetry is poetry or art in which the visual arrangement of text, images and symbols are important in conveying the intended effect of the work. It is an artistic expression of written language which deviates from the common expression. It is the shape of the poem on the page that symbolizes the content of the poem. The poet breaks normal word order and line order based on the features of poetry art symbols. These extraordinary arrangements, which deviate from the conventional layout, widen the distance between surface structure and deep structure in poetic language, making interpretation of visual poetry a relatively difficult job.Some scholars at home and abroad make some researches on visual poetry from the perspective of literary criticism, creation intention, semiotics and stylistics. However, few researches have made on visual poetry from the perspective of cohesion and coherence. Therefore, it can arouse a new topic in text research. Based on the features of visual poetry, i.e. combining both image and language, this thesis analysizes coherence in visual poetry from an angle of implicit cohesion. The thesis puts forward that, besides traditional lexical cohesion and grammatical cohesion, double image, i.e. objective image and subjective image, can be used as cohesive device in the obtaining of coherence in interpreting visual poetry.Different from the images in Chinese ancient poetry, objective image in visual poetry is an overall connection of the external form of poetry. It is not only a representation of the meaning of visual poetry, but also a cohesive device from the outer form of visual poetry. Based on the features of visual poetry, objective image can be classified into entire visualizing image and partial visualizing image, between which entire visualizing image involves static image and dynamic image while partial visualizing image includes images made by the use of punctuation, capital and lower-case letters and unconventional space between letters and words.Subjective image is used to denote a verbal expression that evokes a mental picture or recalls physical sensation. Coherence can be considered as the underlying conceptual relations among parts of a text depending upon the interpretation on the parts of the reader. In accordance with the mechanism of image in visual poetry, the poet expounds how cohesion and coherence are realized by visual image, auditory image, tactile image, and psychological image.Finally the conclusion is drawn that objective image and subjective image have the function of cohesion. This thesis focuses on exploring double image cohesion in visual poetry. It will to some extent help the reader to appreciate the surface structure and interpretate of deep structure of visual poetry. Cohesive devices in visual poetry proposed in this thesis can deepen the study of textual cohesion and coherence.