Cognitive Types of German Poet Peter Huchel Kensuke SUGIURA The structure of the world depends on the cognitive structure of the person who perceives the outer world. Accordingly, it varies in accordance with periods, regions, cultures, and individuals. The poetical world also varies in accordance with poets. The variation is caused by an artistic intention, a particular imagination, an inborn sensitivity, or the like of the poet, to be sure, but it is also caused by a unique cognition of the poet. Therefore, it is possible to explain the poetical world from the viewpoint of the cognition. On this premise, the author's study on the modern German poet Peter Huchel deals with his expressions concerned with the cognition. I argue that there are seven major cognitive types in his poems as in the following. (1) Trimming cognition: Huchel cuts off a part out of the whole and represents the whole conversely by the part, which has to do with a metonymic cognition. However, Huchel's trimming cognition operates sometimes with metonymic, metaphoric, and illusive cognition, for example, “A black buzzing cloth out of flies closed the wounds of the dead.” in a scene of the war. (2) Unreal cognition: Huchel recognizes what is unreal which is non-existing, for example “a wound in the air.” However, it is human to deal with unreality to use it as part of the world, for example the numeral zero. (3) Illusive cognition: Huchel recognizes illusive things, for example, “the dead dreams march as fish over the riverbed.” In Huchel's world, the illusions are no longer illusive but become real, for example, “Schattenwind (shadow-wind)”, “Holunderrauch (elder-smoke)”, and “Nebelwald (fog-woods)”. (4) Animalizing cognition: Huchel often recognizes things by animalization, for example, “the pond winks as a fish-eye.” Huchel's animalization is not a simple metaphor. The figure is not a vehicle for the implied meaning, but alive for itself. Not only is each figure, but also Huchel's world itself animalized because it gets some parts of an animal body, for example “foot of morning” and “eye of waste.” (5) Cross-cognition between two sense organs: Huchel has synaesthesia, which is usually connected to metaphorical cognition. However, Huchel's synaesthesia is not a metaphor. Two sense organs operate almost equally at the same time and cross each other, for example, “the woods rustle roe-deer-braun into the sound of bell.” Huchel's synaesthesia is to be called cross-cognition between two sense organs. (6) Cross-cognition between the sky and the earth: The sky and the earth cross each other in Huchel's cognition. The elementary structure of Huchel's poetical space is composed through his cross-cognition between the sky and the earth, for example, “Himmelsfenster (the sky-window)” and “stars float into the fish traps.” (7) Cross-cognition between the inside and the outside: The inside and the outside cross each other in Huchel's cognition, for example, “the drink of night blows through us.” The cross-cognition between the inside and the outside causes unification with nature, and develops into a correspondence between human being and the nature. In this correspondence, a “sign” (“Zeichen”) is sent from the nature to the human being. These seven types of cognition contribute to construct Huchel's poetical world.
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