Coleridge's Transcendental Imagination: The Seascape beyond the Senses in ''The Rime of the Ancient Mariner''

Abstract

This article shows how Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" engages the reader in something akin to a dialectic process of making sense of the mariner's seascape. Analysis reveals that the poem does this by constantly confronting the reader within the same image with familiar and unfamiliar phenomena that she/he has to synthesise into a meaningful whole. The meaningful whole that comes into being as a result of the synthesis of opposites, suggests the idea that the whole is, as Coleridge put it, "grander" and "faster" than we can comprehend, an idea that Coleridge advocated in several of his nonpoetic writings. Very specifically, the anti­thetical presence of familiarity and unfamiliarity creates confusion about the realm's visible features, until the imagination eliminates this confusion by synthesising the underlying antitheses. This argument is contextualised firstly (and briefly) against the background of the history of the idea of the dialectic, or the synthesis of opposites, and especially its development in German transcendental thought, and secondly, against aspects of Coleridge's own ars poetica, which was greatly influenced by German transcendental thought. Coleridge's indebtedness to the German thinkers of the time is the subject of much scholarly work. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner", however, predates most of the important idealist writings. The article points out parallels between the composition of Coleridge's images in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and the underpinnings of German transcendental thought. These parallels could indicate that Coleridge was influenced by early idealist writing or that he did indeed - as he claimed - think simultaneously and independently the same thoughts as the important German idealist thinkers of his time. Either way, the parallels indicate a Zeitgeist so strong that it found expression also in Coleridge's poetic output.

Opsomming

Hierdie artikel dui aan hoe Coleridge se "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" die leser betrek by iets soortgelyk aan 'n dialektiese proses wanneer die leser sinmaak van die seevaarder se wereld. Analise wys uit dat die gedig dit doen deur die leser voortdurend in dieselfde beeld te konfronteer met bekende en onbekende dinge wat die leser moet saamvoeg om 'n sinvolle geheel te vorm. Hierdie sinvolle geheel wat in wese kom as gevolg van die sintese van teenoorgesteldes suggereer dat die geheel, soos Coleridge dit stel, grootser en omvattender is as wat die mensdom kan begryp - 'n idee wat die digter gereeld in sy niepoetiese werke benadruk het. Die antitetiese teenwoordigheid van die bekende en die onbekende skep verwarring oor die seelandskap se sigbare aspekte, totdat die verbeelding die verwarring uit die weg ruim deur die sintese van die onderliggende antiteses. Hierdie argument word eerstens (kortliks) gekontekstualiseer teen die agtergrond van die geskiedenis van die dialektiek, of die sintese van teenoorgesteldes, en spesifiek die ontwikkeling van die gedagte in Duitse transendentale idealisme. Tweedens word die argument gekontekstualiseer teen die agtergrond van Coleridge se eie ars poetica wat tot 'n groot mate be·invloed is deur Duitse transendentale idealisme. Die invloed van die Duitse denkers op Coleridge is die onderwerp van vele studies. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" is egter gepubliseer voor die belangrikste Duitse transendentaal­idealistiese tekste. Hierdie artikel wys paralelle uit tussen die beeldskepping in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" en die onderbou van die Duitse transendentale denke. Die paralelle kan aandui dat Coleridge be"invloed is deur baie vroee geskrifte van die Duitse transendentale idealiste of dat hy, soos hy herhaaldelik beweer het, gelyk­tydig en onafhanklik dieselfde idees as die belangrike Duitse denkers van sy tyd gehad het. In albei gevalle is die paralelle aanduidend van 'n tydsgees so prominent dat dit neerslag gevind het in Coleridge se digkuns.