A mondhatóság határai

Abstract

Romantic poetry can be described with the conflicting terms of tradition and originality: its essence is not originality in the strict sense, but rather the deformation of tradition. The sovereignty of the Romantic poet does not come from the negation of tradition, but from acquiring and using it consciously. The paper discusses two poems of Petőfi which anticipate the unity of experience and representation, but they both end with arguing for the impossibility of such union. In What Shall I Call You? metaphorical expression becomes a questionable method, while in A Time of Fear narrative sense-making connected to temporal experiences turns out to be impossible. Both poems face the limits of expression, although in different ways: What Shall I Call You? deals with the impossibility of verbalising individual experiences, while A Time of Fear comes to the same conclusion regarding collective experiences. The two poems demonstrate it well how Petőfi initiated a phenomenon representative of the late Romantic period.