Narrative strategies in Sir Philip Sidney's Astrophil and Stella

Abstract

Die artikel gaan van die standpunt uit dat, histories gesien, liriek en narratief nie wederkerig-uitsluitende kategorieë is nie. Met die klem op Sir Philip Sidney se sonnetreeks "Astrophil and Stella", argumenteer ek dat die hoofsaaklik liriese vorm van die sonnet retories sowel as kontekstueel só funksioneer dat dit die moontlikheid van 'n narratiewe rekonstuksie en interpretasie aanmoedig. Ek argumenteer verder dat dit die norm in die poëtiese praktyk en teorie voor die Verligting was - aspekte wat miskien uit die oog verloor is vanweë die kwynende belangstelling in die retoriek.

In this article I suggest that historically lyric and narrative are not mutually exclusive categories. Focusing on the case of Sir Philip Sidney's sonnet sequence, "Astrophil and Stella", I argue that the fundamentally lyric form of the sonnet functions rhetorically and contextually in such a way as to invite narrative construal. I suggest that this is the norm in pre-Enlightenment poetic practice and theory, something which was perhaps occluded by the decline of interest in rhetoric.