Dylan Thomas's Poetics of Embodiment

Sammanfattning: The dissertation explores the structure and functions of embodied metaphors in Dylan Thomas’s (1914–1953) works. It aims to show that embodiment defines Thomas’s writing both stylistically and thematically, and that Thomas’s body metaphors are essentially founded on the biblical myths of creation and the Fall. On the one hand, human life is presented as a journey towards a greater understanding, and on the other, a tragedy stemming from the earthly side of bodiliness. The theme is approached with theoretical tools adapted from Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT) and blending theory: both build on the notion of the embodied mind, as derived from the findings of cognitive science. In the spirit of descriptive poetics, the theoretical framework and the texts examined are set in constant dialogue with each another. CMT redefines metaphor as a pattern of thought in which one concept illuminates another. The body provides the basis for spatial conceptualisation, which is reflected in metaphors central to our thinking: bodily experience thus offers a tangible tool for conceptualising more abstract things. However, the multidisciplinary and thought-oriented nature of CMT poses a considerable challenge when applying the framework to the analysis of literary texts. This is particularly evident with Thomas’s figuratively opaque writing. The approach taken in the dissertation emphasises the importance of making a distinction between conceptual metaphors and their linguistic realisations, and complements cognitive interpretations with stylistic and contextual observations. Indeed, one of the main arguments of the dissertation is that such a systematic investigation of local embodied metaphors may provide valuable insights into the study of embodiment in literature in general. The particularities of Thomas’s writing style give rise to a number of theoretical issues: metaphor as a stylistic device in consciousness representation, intertextuality as part of metaphoric mapping, and the lyric ‘I’s role in searching for metaphoric coherence in reading. While the dissertation tries to formulate a more context-sensitive application of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, it also argues that Thomas’s poetics of embodiment evolves from the very abstract bodiliness of the early poetry towards linguistically less dense but in many ways more ‘difficult’ metaphoricity. The texts analysed are from the compilations "The Collected Poems 1934–1953" (2000) and "The Collected Stories" (1955), except for the radio play "Under Milk Wood" (1954).