Het poëtisch accent. Drie literaire genres in zeventiende-eeuwse Nederlandse pamfletten

Abstract

'The poetic accent. Three literary genres in seventeenth-century Dutch pamphlets' focuses on the way the conviction works, by studying pamphlets containing sonnets, songs and echo-poetry. I distinguish between structural and affective functions of poetry. Within the composition of a pamphlet, poetry was often given an exordial or perorational function. Poetry before the main text was well suited to portray the author in a good way, to deliver the message of the pamphlet as a kind of device and to help the reader with his interpretation. A poem could also function perorational as a summary of the main text, or as an emotional repetition of the message of the main text. Concerning the affective functions, hardly any neutral or reporting poetry can be found. Most poems have a persuasive function. They can be divided into two groups. The first contains occasional poetry that praises deceased people or poetry that sings about certain festivities and usually follows the known patterns from the funeral or panegyric poetry. The second group is more capricious and differ from the first group because more than in the first category of persuasive poetry an appeal is made to the reader. To call poetry in pamphlets polemic, they have to be part of an ongoing polemic discussion, in which several pamphlets present different views on the same subject. It is characterized by an extensive use of accusing and slandering tactics. Polemic poetry often contains intertextuality. It is credible that polemics aimed at more extreme effects and because of that a certain arsenal of rhetoric weapons was used. The diverting function of poetry in pamphlets can either serve the persuasive or polemic function, or it can be a goal in itself. When the diverting function serves the persuasive or polemic function, it can do so in various ways. First, certain literary elements can be prominent and draw attention to themselves. The second manner in which poetry can have a diverting function in pamphlets, is when poetry is used to vary, or interrupt an ongoing argument without an actual argumentative necessity. The third way in which a diverting function is present but still serving the persuasive and polemic function, is when poetry is part of a mixture of literary forms that ideally reflect on different topics. Sonnets, songs and echo-poetry were used in a one-sided manner when it came to pamphlets, while in fact all genres were more versatile. Pamphlets only contain sonnets of the epigrammatic type, they contain mainly historical songs with political-religious aims and the pastoral variant of echo-poetry is not used. Echo-poetry even slowly abandoned its original form until it became a play of words with only vague reminiscences of its literary and mythological past. These developments are undoubtedly connected to the nature of the medium pamphlet, a medium with a persuasive meaning, willing to play a role in the discussion of current affairs. Poetry in such a medium cannot be pastoral or about love, but has to contribute to this persuasive purpose.