Johannes Kinker en zijn literaire theorie. Bijdrage tot een interpretatie van de voorredes bij zijn gedichten (1819-1821)

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Summary^*

The three prefaces to the Poems(1819, 1820, 1821)by the Dutch author Johannes Kinker (1764-1845) discuss respectively the relation between poetry and philosophy, the ode, and the epic. These essays are based upon a theory Kinker had already developed by about 1800. In this theory the following items are relevant:

1.	the concept ‘digterlijke genie’, i.e. poetic genius;
2.	the concept ‘zweemend’, i.e. referring to (symbolic);
3.	prosody.

1. Kinker's conception of the poetic creative process is that of a process of growth. The work of art in its initial stage develops from an aestetic idea, the poetic conception (1), through imagination (2), artistic passion (3), and genius (4) towards artistic creation. In this process (1) stimulates (2), (2) stimulates (3), (3) stimulates (4). The fourth stage is not merely the passive result of (1), (2), and (3), but it also actively dominates the complete creative process.

2. The poet is confronted with the same spiritual-material reality (the dual world we live in) as the philosopher. Both wish to put this reality into words, but each does so in his own way. The poet is essentially a philosopher, but - contrary to the ‘scientific’ philosopher - the poet mainly appeals to (playful) imagination. The philosopher uses concepts, the poet uses ‘zweemende’ representations of concepts. In his magical speculations the poet uses all available formal elements: imagery, sound etc.

3. Versification is an important aid in expressing poetic ideas. The Dutch language can make ample use of the metrical achievements of Greek and Latin poets. According to Kinker the literature of classical antiquity has never been surpassed in any respect by works of more recent times.

Preface I deals with the proposition that poetry has a greater capacity for shaping philosophical matter than any other form of art. This thesis is based upon Kinker's conviction that poetry and philosophy have much in common. Poet and philosopher are active in the same (spiritual-material) field.

Preface II is about the lyric poem, which Kinker considers to be the

* I am very grateful to Mr. L.H. Mosheuvel for the translation of the summary.

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most august form of poetry. It is remarkable, that he describes the creative process of the ode to be slightly different from that of poetry in general. In this case artistic passion triggers imagination (and not the other way round, as stated above).

Preface III is an essay on the epic, in which Kinker pays detailed attention to Bilderdijk's views on the subject and enlarges upon them. In Kinker's opinion Bilderdijk was the greatest contemporary Dutch poet.

In Kinker's literary theories the unity of form and matter holds a central position. It is based upon the unity of matter and spirit. Every good poem is a unity of material (spiritual) form and spiritual (material) content.

The poem as a creation constitutes a new reality in which experience does not distinguish between form and content; good poetry is without any difficulty accepted as a unity of a specific kind. In the richness of the form one finds the newly created material-spiritual reality; this is the ‘zweemende’ (i.e. referring, metaphorical) character of every work of art. Kinkers' theory is closely related to Schiller's, whom he also greatly admired as a poet.