Volume V (2022)
Section II
Anna Christina Ribeiro provides a wonderful proposal for the ontological status of poetry and
brings to light the shift from declamation-based poetry to inscription-based poetry. Ribiero draws
on Wollheim’s type - token distinction and utilizes Thomasson’s d efinition of an abstract artifact
to form the following proposal for the ontology of poetry:
A poem is an intentional, abstract artefact; a type, consisting of an instantiation template, whose creation is spatio-temporally located via its original token, and thus embedded in either a declamation-based or an inscription-based practice, which will dictate the kinds of ontological strictures embodied in that original token and required of all future tokens. 12 This declaration-based and inscription-based distinction is a brilliant one — and it is worth noting
that embedded in this distinction is the historical development of poetry as a genre. It is this
development that determines how past ontology must differ from present ontology and what
constitutions have bee n preserved. Ribeiro goes on to explain how “declaration -based poetic
works are linguistically fluid but formally rigid,” whereas inscription -based poetic works are
linguistically rigid but formally fluid. 13 Currently, a poem that follows identity conditions of
declamation-based poetry is thought to be old- fashioned and even “primitive” even though
orality of verse still persists. 14 Ribeiro’s proposal relies on the notion that poems are cultural
entities — the product of an evolving practice and subject to different identity-conditions
depending on the mainstream practice at the time.
Ontological implications naturally arise regarding Ribeiro’s proposal. I would like to
address some of them by posing two questions and attempting to provide answers that align with
Ribeiro’s theory. These are as follows: 1) For poetry to be an abstract type of the original token,
does it have to have the same word order? and 2) What should the identity conditions be for
12 Ribiero, 130-131. 13 Ribeiro, 140-141. 14 Ribeiro, 146.
39
Made with FlippingBook Annual report maker