Preliminary communication
A Swing – a Silent Witness of Women’s Emotion
Mojca Pretnar
; University of Zagreb
Abstract
This interdisciplinary study investigates the evolution of the meaning of the seemingly insignificant and rarely discussed culturally specific image (yixiang意象) of a “swing” (qiuqian 鞦韆/秋千) in Chinese poetry and culture overall using the tools of conceptual metaphor theory to determine the development of the conceptual patterns behind the image to get a sense of how this inanimate image became a personification of women. The study follows it from its appearance in Tang dynasty (618–907) shi (詩) poetry but focuses on its manifestation in ci (詞) poetry from the Song dynasty (960–1279), when it reached the peak in development since it is a feminine image and ci poetry is a genre more suitable for the contexts the image appears in as shown by a handful of examples by women poets. The image found its place in poetry connected to the theme of “resentment in the women’s chamber” (guiyuan 閨怨), where it gained some stability of the meaning which stayed with the image in the following eras. The research considers if there is a difference in conceptual patterns behind the image in the poetry written by men and those written by women. Despite the issue of authorship, the lacking material, and the insignificant differences in conceptual patterns, the research clarifies the reasons such as how the image of a happy state of mind became the silent witness of women’s resentment and reveals what men and women were both aware of – the importance of physical activity and its impact on the state of mind.
Keywords
image (yixiang 意象); “swing”; conceptual metaphor; ci (詞) poetry; women poets; Song dynasty
Hrčak ID:
319787
URI
Publication date:
25.7.2024.
Visits: 372 *