William Empson
(영국 시인 문학비평가, 1906~1984)
........ 한 언어가 가지는 다의성은 단점이 아니라, 오히려 장점이다. 영국의 시인이며 문학비평가인 William Empson 은 ambiguity, 즉 다의성 (多義性) 이 많은 언어일수록 훌륭한 언어라고 하였다. 그만큼 함축적인 표현을 할 수 있어서 문장의 내함을 풍부하게 하기 때문이다. .............
영국 비평가·시인. 케임브리지대학에서 수학을 전공했으나, 문학가로 전향하여 I.A. 리처드에게 배웠다. 재학중에 쓴 《의미의 다양성의 7가지형(1930)》은 분석비평의 방향을 결정한 획기적 논문으로, 미국의 ＜신비평(뉴크리티시즘)가＞들에게 큰 영향을 주었다. 이 분야에는 그 밖에 《전원시의 여러 유형(1935)》 《복합어의 구조(1951)》 《밀턴의 신(1961)》 등이 있다. 한편 시풍은 난해했으며 《시집(1935)》 《풍운(風雲, 1940)》 《전시집(全詩集, 1955)》 등에서 자기의 시론을 작품화했다. 1931년부터 3년 동안 도쿄문리과대학에서 강의하였으며, 53년부터 셰필드대학 영문학 교수를 지냈다........... (Yahoo 백과사전 : 엠프슨)
Empson is now best known for his literary criticism, and in particular his analysis of the use of language in poetical works, though his own poetry is arguably undervalued, although it was admired by and influenced English poets in the 1950s. In his critical work he was particularly influenced by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, whose own work is largely concerned with the problematics of language in expressing thought with clarity. His best known work is the book Seven Types of Ambiguity. This book was to have a significant impact on the New Criticism, a school of criticism which directed particular attention to close reading of texts, among whose adherents may be numbered F.R. Leavis.
His Milton's God was a sustained attack on Christianity and defence of Milton's attempt to 'justify God's ways to man'.
His poetry is clever, learned, dry, aethereal and technically virtuosic: his high regard for the metaphysical poet John Donne is to be seen in many places within his work, tempered with his appreciation of Buddhist thinking, and his occasional tendency to satire. He wrote very few poems and stopped writing poetry almost entirely after 1940. His Complete Poems [edited by John Haffenden, his biographer] is 512 pages long, with over 300 pages of notes. ....... (Wikipedia : William Empson)
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