Journal of Literary Theory (JLT)

Stahl, Henrieke

Towards a Historical Typology of the Subject in Lyric Poetry [Abstract]

of Contents, Table

Table of Contens

Vandegrift Eldridge, Sarah

Imaginative Didacticism: Emotion, Individuality, and the Function of Trivialliteratur around 1800 [Abstract]

Culler, Jonathan

Lyric Words, not Worlds [Abstract]

Baumbach, Sibylle

Haekel, Ralf

Sprang, Felix

 1 
Sibylle Baumbach, Ralf Haekel and Felix Sprang 
Preface: Cognitive Literary Studies 
• Full-length article in: JLT 11/2 (2017), 161. 
Cognitive Literary Studies (CLS) is one of the most fiercely contested and rapidly changing 
areas in the humanities. Its greatest challenge and, at the same time, most fruitful endeavour, is 
its interdisciplinary scope, which aims at combining a wide range of different approaches from 
cognitive psychology, narratology, philosophy, and (empirical) aesthetics. Due to the import of 
key concepts from the cognitive sciences, however, CLS has been facing several objections, 
such as the lack or inadequacy of empirical testing or, more significantly, the fallacy of 
premature definitions. As apparent in the recent proliferation of approaches that investigate the 
role of simulation and theory of mind in reading fiction, for instance, the complex ›baggage‹ of 
some of the concepts transferred from cognitive psychology tends to get lost in translation. In 
fact, the cultural and historical connotations of the term cognition have become so wide-ranging 
that it hardly seems a suitable foundation for a whole discipline. The greatest task of CLS, 
therefore, is to acknowledge these varieties, to address methodological, theoretical, and 
conceptual challenges, and to carefully but courageously map the multiple dimensions of the 
field. The contributions to this special issue take up this challenge and tackle the CLS-minefield. 
Having emerged from a seminar on »Brain Drain or Brain Gain? The Future of Cognitive 
Literary Studies« at the Anglistentag 2015 and been refined in the process of editing this special 
issue, they provide novel and deliberately controversial insights into an on-going debate to 
spark off new theoretical and methodological arenas for the future of CLS. 
2017-09-22 
JLTonline ISSN 1862-8990 
Copyright © by the author. All rights reserved. 
This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author 
and JLTonline. 
For other permission, please contact JLTonline. 
How to cite this item: 
Abstract of: Sibylle Baumbach, Ralf Haekel, Felix Sprang, Preface: Cognitive Literary Studies. 
In: JLTonline (22.09.2017)  
Persistent Identifier: urn:nbn:de:0222-003651 
Link: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0222-003651 


English

Preface: Cognitive Literary Studies

Ramazani, Jahan

Lyric Poetry: Intergeneric, Transnational, Translingual? [Abstract]

Hillebrandt, Claudia

Klimek, Sonja

Müller, Ralph

Waters, William

Rüdiger, Zymner

Theories of Lyric [Abstract]

Gillingham, Susan

 1 
Susan Gillingham 
›I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre‹ (Psalm 49:4). How 
›Lyrical‹ is Hebrew Psalmody? 
(Abstract) 
• Full-length article in: JLT 11/1 (2017), 40–50. 
This paper discusses biblical poetry in relation to the ancient Greek-Latin tradition of lyric 
poetry. Since the Greek word »lyric« and the Hebrew word »psalterion« each have musical 
connotations, there must be some connection between biblical psalmody and lyric poetry. 
Indeed, the liturgical superscriptions of many psalms and the numerous hints to musical 
instruments and singing within them suggest that many texts were originally used for 
accompaniment to music and so could be seen as ›lyric poetry‹ in the strictest sense. There are, 
of course, key differences between ancient and biblical lyric poetry. Hebrew poems are formally 
marked not so much by metre or rhyme as by more general conventions of sonority and word-
play, perhaps to facilitate memorisation. Furthermore, Hebrew poetry is particularly 
recognizable by its balanced expression of thought, a ›parallelism‹ which includes repeated or 
contrasting ideas and figurative language. This feature is also evident in some Hebrew prose: 
this ›blurring of the boundaries‹ between prose and poetry is another feature which 
distinguishes biblical poetry from ancient Greek or Latin lyric poetry. One other distinctive 
feature of psalmody is that, although rooted in the liturgy of the first Temple (950–587 BCE), 
and developing in the liturgy of the second Temple period, it continued to thrive even after the 
fall of the Temple in 70 CE. The liturgical use of the psalms resulted in its continual prominence 
throughout Jewish and Christian history; and because the essence of Hebrew poetry is more 
dependent on sense than sound this has also enabled a rich tradition of translation. So Hebrew 
psalmody is ›re-invented‹ through the several Greek, Latin, and Aramaic versions, as well as 
through the many languages of the early modern period, right up to the contemporary 
vernacular. In this sense psalmody is unusual: unlike ancient classical poetry it provides an 
ongoing and living tradition for a community of faith. 
References 
Andreopoulos, Andreas/Augustine Casiday/Carol Harrison (eds.), Meditations of the Heart. 
The Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice. Essays in Honour of Andrew Louth, 
Turnhout 2011. 
Austern, Linda Phyllis/Kari Boyd McBride/David Orvis (eds.), Psalms in the Modern World, 
Farnham et al. 2011. 
Berlin, Adele, The Dynamics of Biblical Parallelism, revised and expanded edition, Cambridge 
2008. 
Biddings, Roderick, Music to God’s Ears, Maitland, FL 2010. 
Brown, William, Seeing the Psalms. A Theology of Metaphor, Louisville, KY 2002. [Web of 
Science] 
Eaton, John, The Psalms Come Alive. Capturing the Voice and Art of Israel’s Songs, Downers 
Grove, IL 1984. 
Gerstenberger, Erhard, Psalms. Part I, with an introduction to cultic poetry, Grand Rapids, MI 
1988. 
Gillingham, Susan, The Poems and Psalms of the Hebrew Bible, Oxford 1994. 
 2 
Gillingham, Susan, Psalms through the Centuries, Vol. 1, Oxford 2008. 
Hamlin, Hannibal, Psalm Culture and Early Modern Literature, Cambridge 2004. 
Kugel, James, The Idea of Biblical Poetry, New Haven, Conn. 1981. 
Smith, John, Which Psalms were Sung in the Temple?, Music and Letters 71:2 (1990), 167–86. 
Watson, Wilfred, Classical Hebrew Poetry. A Guide to its Techniques [1984], London 2004. 
 
2017-03-16 
JLTonline ISSN 1862-8990 
Copyright © by the author. All rights reserved. 
This work may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper credit is given to the author 
and JLTonline. 
For other permission, please contact JLTonline. 
How to cite this item: 
Abstract of: Susan Gillingham, ›I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre‹ (Psalm 49:4). How ›Lyrical‹ is 
Hebrew Psalmody? 
In: JLTonline (16.03.2017)   
Persistent Identifier: urn:nbn:de:0222-003484 
Link: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0222-003484 


›I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre‹ (Psalm 49:4). How ›Lyrical‹ is Hebrew Psalmody? [Abstract]

The Confines of Cognitive Literary Studies: The Sonnet and a Cognitive Poetics of Form [Abstract]

Erchinger, Philipp

Reading Experience: William James and Robert Browning [Abstract]

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