On Interpretative Theories of Rhythm

Abstract

The connection between the concepts of “rhythm” and “interpretation” or “meaning” in literary (lyrical) theory can be received as a mere paradox. The concept of rhythm and metre had a very important, functional role in the theories of structuralism and structural semiotics. These paradigms of literary theory provided very precise, sometimes numerically detailed descriptions of metre, or a rhythm of a poem, however without taking into consideration the problem of interpretation. From the other side, hermeneutic approaches sometimes mention the “phenomenon” of rhythm, all the same do not realize text-analysis, so cannot connect the problem of the rhythm of a concrete text with the general questions of text-interpretation. Finally, the deconstructive strategies of text-interpretation and text-analysis rather don’t pay attention on the rhythm of a lyrical work. Nevertheless, there are some xx-th century theories which are based on the creative function of language and the semantic interpretation of rhythm, especially the rhythm in a verse or a poem. The paper examines four semantic theories of rhythm: suggestions of Juri Tinanov, I. A. Richards, Émile Benveniste and Henri Meschonnic.