Table Of ContentTHE PERVASIVE IMAGE
PURDUE UNIVERSITY MONOGRAPHS
IN ROMANCE LANGUAGES
William M. Whitby, General Editor
Allan H. Pasco, Editor for French
Enrique Caracciolo-Trejo, Editor for Spanish
Associate Editors
I. French
Max Aprile, Purdue University
Paul Benhamou, Purdue University
Willard Bohn, Illinois State University
Gerard J. Brault, Pennsylvania State University
Germaine Brée, Wake Forest University
Jules Brody, Harvard University
Victor Brombert, Princeton University
Ursula Franklin, Grand Valley State College
Floyd F. Gray, University of Michigan
Gerald Herman, University of California, Davis
Michael Issacharoff, University of Western Ontario
Thomas E. Kelly, Purdue University
Milorad R. Margitic, Wake Forest University
Bruce A. Morrissette, University of Chicago
Roy Jay Nelson, University of Michigan
Glyn P. Norton, Pennsylvania State University
David Lee Rubin, University of Virginia
Murray Sachs, Brandeis University
English Showalter, Rutgers University, Camden
Donald Stone, Jr., Harvard University
II. Spanish
J.B. Avalle-Arce, University of California, Santa Barbara
Rica Brown, M. A., Oxon
Frank P. Casa, University of Michigan
James O. Crosby, Florida International University
Alan D. Deyermond, Westfield College (University of London)
David T. Gies, University of Virginia
Roberto González Echevarria, Yale University
Thomas R. Hart, University of Oregon
David K. Herzberger, University of Connecticut
Djelal Kadir II, Purdue University
John W. Kronik, Cornell University
Floyd F. Merrell, Purdue University
Geoffrey Ribbans, Brown University
Elias L. Rivers, SUNY, Stony Brook
Francisco Ruiz Ramón, University of Chicago
J.M. Sobré, Indiana University
Bruce W. Wardropper, Duke University
Volume 17
Robert Archer
The Pervasive Image:
The Role of Analogy in the Poetry of Auslàs March
ROBERT ARCHER
THE PERVASIVE IMAGE
The Role of Analogy in the Poetry of Ausiàs March
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
Amsterdam/Philadelphia
1985
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Archer, Robert, 1945-
The pervasive image.
(Purdue University monographs in Romance languages, ISSN 0165-8743; v. 17)
Bibliography: p.
Includes index.
1. March, Ausias, 1397?-1459--Technique. I. Title. II. Series.
PC3937.M3Z52 1985 849 912 85-13360
ISBN 0-915027-56-9 (U.S.; alk. paper)
ISBN 90 272 1727 0 (European pb.; alk. paper)
© Copyright 1985 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or
any other means, without written permission from the publisher.
To Sandra
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
Part I: The Historical and Theoretical Backgrounds to March's Analogies
1. The Analogical Background
The Analogical Universe 25
The Marchian Analogy and the Troubadour Tradition 28
The Master/Servant Image 34
The Marine Image 39
Animal and Bestiary Images 48
Nontroubadouresque Themes 51
March and the Provençal Tradition: Conclusions 54
2. Towards a Theory of Simile
The Marchian Simile: A Fundamental Problem in Theory 57
Aristotelian Theory of Simile and Metaphor 60
Classical Theory: Simile, Metaphor, and Allegory 61
The Flors del Gay Saber: Simile and Allegoria 63
Simile and Exemplum 69
Some Modern Theories of Metaphor 74
The "Interaction" Theory of Metaphor 78
An "Interactive" Theory of Simile 82
Part II : Functions of the Analogy
3. Emotive and Explicative Functions
The Emotive Effect 95
viii The Pervasive Image
New Metaphors for Old 102
The Explicative Function 106
4. Prefiguring the Occasion
Prefiguring the Occasion 115
Cants de Mort XCII1, XCIV 128
5. Tactics in Persuasion
The Effect of Implication 131
The Deflection and Redirection of Moral Responsibility 138
The Sophistic Argument 143
6. The Moral Perspective
The Implication of the Moral Context 147
Antithesis 152
7. Some Further Aspects of March's Use of Analogy
The Unsatisfactory Analogy 163
A Special Problem: Allegory in LXVIII 171
Use and Non-Use of Analogy 175
8. Conclusion. 179
Notes 183
Bibliography 209
Index to Poems 219
Preface
When Ausiàs March (1397-1459) was made available in print in the mid
sixteenth century, one of his Castilian editors rued that his work should have
been condemned to what he saw as "la càrcel de la lengua lemosina," by which
he meant Catalan, or rather the Valencian form of it which was March's native
tongue. One imagines that few of those who have read March's work would
subscribe to this opinion, for a number of good reasons, not least of them the
simple literary one that the distinctive qualities which the lamenting editor
presumably admired are to some extent defined by the language in which
March wrote. It is nevertheless tempting to speculate that had March written
in Spanish instead of in a language which was soon to lose its political
currency, he would by now undoubtedly be more widely recognised as the
finest lyric poet in the Iberian Peninsula before the sixteenth century, and as
one of the greatest in fifteenth century Europe as a whole.
The peculiar strength and energy of his poetic voice, its ferocity, as someone
once put it, throws his relatively large opus into sharp relief against the pale
background of conventional, if technically accomplished, lyric written by his
Catalan predecessors and contemporaries, while it makes most of the Spanish
cancioneril verse seem half-hearted. In part, the huge power of March's verse
is due, no doubt, to the simple vitality and complexity of the personality
behind it. But it is also to be accounted for by the fact that, even in that part
of his work which is most obviously affiliated to the courtly poetic tradition,
March shifts the focus away from the aural effects which by and large con
cerned his contemporaries and places it upon the meaning of what he has to
say. And yet, the sound of his verse complements the sense in a unique way.
It is difficult to imagine March's poetry in any other language than Valencian
Catalan, certainly not Spanish as his Castilian editor seemed to wish (even sup
posing that he knew it well enough to write in it), and even less so in the Provençal
language in which other Catalans of his time customarily versified. In the
poetry that has come down to us, March turns to the full semantic resources
of his native tongue, and it is precisely this tense and sometimes harsh-sounding
language, used by March in a wide range of registers, including its earthier
ones, that lends his work its peculiarly rugged quality.
