Event Title
Two Selves in Shakespeare's Sonnets
Location
Davis 306
Start Date
30-4-2015 2:30 PM
End Date
30-4-2015 3:25 PM
Project Type
Presentation
Description
In her introduction the the Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets Helen Vendler argues that the sonnet mimics a mind in solitary thought, and she claims a poem should represent feelings and thoughts (1, 16). Yet human thoughts and emotions are disordered where the sonnet is highly ordered. My project explores how the controlled form functions to contain the turbulent, unrestrained content of the human mind. In my exploration of Vendler's argument about mimicry, I will use insights from psychologist Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, and his theory that humans have two selves: an experiencing and remembering self. I want to explores how this psychological idea connects to poetry. If Vendler is right and poetry mimics thoughts thought and feelings felt, which self is doing the feelings, and which self is doing the writing, and what role does this play in our reading of sonnets? I will explore how these two selves function in Shakespeare's sonnets, and explore how the sonnet form mimics thoughts, feelings, and memory. I will present on my findings, and show how form and content, experience and memory, and thoughts and feelings are inextricably linked and reflected in the sonnet form.
Faculty Sponsor
Elizabeth Sagaser
Sponsoring Department
Colby College. English Dept.
CLAS Field of Study
Humanities
Event Website
http://www.colby.edu/clas
ID
1700
Two Selves in Shakespeare's Sonnets
Davis 306
In her introduction the the Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets Helen Vendler argues that the sonnet mimics a mind in solitary thought, and she claims a poem should represent feelings and thoughts (1, 16). Yet human thoughts and emotions are disordered where the sonnet is highly ordered. My project explores how the controlled form functions to contain the turbulent, unrestrained content of the human mind. In my exploration of Vendler's argument about mimicry, I will use insights from psychologist Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow, and his theory that humans have two selves: an experiencing and remembering self. I want to explores how this psychological idea connects to poetry. If Vendler is right and poetry mimics thoughts thought and feelings felt, which self is doing the feelings, and which self is doing the writing, and what role does this play in our reading of sonnets? I will explore how these two selves function in Shakespeare's sonnets, and explore how the sonnet form mimics thoughts, feelings, and memory. I will present on my findings, and show how form and content, experience and memory, and thoughts and feelings are inextricably linked and reflected in the sonnet form.
https://digitalcommons.colby.edu/clas/2015/program/287