Coleridge's transcendental imagination: the seascape beyond the senses in "The rime of the ancient mariner"
Abstract
This article shows how Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” engages the
reader in something akin to a dialectic process of making sense of the mariner’s
seascape. Analysis reveals that the poem does this by constantly confronting the
reader within the same image with familiar and unfamiliar phenomena that she/he
has to synthesise into a meaningful whole. The meaningful whole that comes into
being as a result of the synthesis of opposites, suggests the idea that the whole is,
as Coleridge put it, “grander” and “vaster” than we can comprehend, an idea that
Coleridge advocated in several of his nonpoetic writings. Very specifically, the antithetical
presence of familiarity and unfamiliarity creates confusion about the realm’s
visible features, until the imagination eliminates this confusion by synthesising the
underlying antitheses. This argument is contextualised firstly (and briefly) against the
background of the history of the idea of the dialectic, or the synthesis of opposites,
and especially its development in German transcendental thought, and secondly,
against aspects of Coleridge’s own ars poetica, which was greatly influenced by
German transcendental thought. Coleridge’s indebtedness to the German thinkers of
the time is the subject of much scholarly work. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”,
however, predates most of the important idealist writings. The article points out
parallels between the composition of Coleridge’s images in “The Rime of the Ancient
Mariner” and the underpinnings of German transcendental thought. These parallels
could indicate that Coleridge was influenced by early idealist writing or that he did
indeed – as he claimed – think simultaneously and independently the same thoughts
as the important German idealist thinkers of his time. Either way, the parallels
indicate a Zeitgeist so strong that it found expression also in Coleridge’s poetic
output Hierdie artikel dui aan hoe Coleridge se “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” die leser
betrek by iets soortgelyk aan ’n dialektiese proses wanneer die leser sinmaak van
die seevaarder se wêreld. Analise wys uit dat die gedig dit doen deur die leser
voortdurend in dieselfde beeld te konfronteer met bekende en onbekende dinge wat
die leser moet saamvoeg om ’n sinvolle geheel te vorm. Hierdie sinvolle geheel wat in wese kom as gevolg van die sintese van teenoorgesteldes suggereer dat die
geheel, soos Coleridge dit stel, grootser en omvattender is as wat die mensdom kan
begryp – ’n idee wat die digter gereeld in sy niepoëtiese werke benadruk het. Die
antitetiese teenwoordigheid van die bekende en die onbekende skep verwarring oor
die seelandskap se sigbare aspekte, totdat die verbeelding die verwarring uit die
weg ruim deur die sintese van die onderliggende antiteses. Hierdie argument word
eerstens (kortliks) gekontekstualiseer teen die agtergrond van die geskiedenis van
die dialektiek, of die sintese van teenoorgesteldes, en spesifiek die ontwikkeling van
die gedagte in Duitse transendentale idealisme. Tweedens word die argument
gekontekstualiseer teen die agtergrond van Coleridge se eie ars poetica wat tot ’n
groot mate beïnvloed is deur Duitse transendentale idealisme. Die invloed van die
Duitse denkers op Coleridge is die onderwerp van vele studies. “The Rime of the
Ancient Mariner” is egter gepubliseer voor die belangrikste Duitse transendentaalidealistiese
tekste. Hierdie artikel wys paralelle uit tussen die beeldskepping in "The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner" en die onderbou van die Duitse transendentale denke.
Die paralelle kan aandui dat Coleridge beïnvloed is deur baie vroeë geskrifte van die
Duitse transendentale idealiste of dat hy, soos hy herhaaldelik beweer het, gelyktydig
en onafhanklik dieselfde idees as die belangrike Duitse denkers van sy tyd
gehad het. In albei gevalle is die paralelle aanduidend van ’n tydsgees so prominent
dat dit neerslag gevind het in Coleridge se digkuns
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/17939http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02564710903495560
DOI:10.1080/02564710903495560
Collections
- Faculty of Humanities [2033]