Emotion and Matter in Corps corrosifs by Lorand Gaspar

Abstract

This chapter articulates an interdisciplinary approach to studying abstraction in poetic language. Grounded on the perspective and methodologies ofCognitive Literary Theory, this study addresses the emotional basis of conceptual-ization of matter and space in poetry, providing an analysis of the work Corpscorrosifs by French poet Lorand Gaspar. The poetological hypothesis of this essayconcerns the emergence of embodied meaning in a poetic corpus characterizedby its “affective abstraction” of space and its scientific treatment of matter. Thechapter examines the idea that emotions are involved in our abstract comprehen-sion of external materiality, and that literature manifests such an emotional com-prehension, allowing us to discern several aspects of the nature of such abstrac-tion. Poems being structures of thought with a profound cognitive value, thetheoretical and analytical contribution of this study motivates the claim that ab-stract thought is ultimately rooted in the perception, movement and feeling of thehuman body. Additionally, it fosters an insight into literary texts that underlines the relevance of affective cognition as a relevant process of human imagination, which has a potential for further research in cognitive poetics.