Studies on the correlation between poetry and films have not been conducted as much as those on media transference and communication between different genre of art. This is not surprising, since the methodological foundation for comparing poetry and films is not yet clear, and the result thereof does not guarantee any meaningful effects, considering the characteristics of the cultural industry. However, examining the methodological correlation in the rhetoric between poetry and films should be quite meaningful considering the true role of the art—creating an aesthetic experience.
Such studies had been continuously conducted outside Korea since 1920’s by formalist film theorists in Russia as well as theorists of the New Criticism in the UK and the US. In Korea, studies that attempted to identify the relationship between poetry and films had been conducted intermittently through the rhetoric of modernist poems in 1930’s, 'Hubanki' poems in 1950’s and modernist poems thereafter. Even though these past studies differed in terms of direction of debates or intentions, the key theme running throughout was the conviction that poetry and films do have a certain linkage from a rhetorical perspective. In particular, the studies conducted outside Korea implicitly demonstrated the correlation between poems’ metaphor and films’ montage, though they might be different in terms of concreteness.
Therefore, this paper seeks to concretize the methodological relationship between poetry and films, with a focus on the similarity of meaningful and aesthetical effects between metaphor and montage, with an underlying belief that poetry, as a traditional art which has been shaped through a long history, can contribute to expanding the aesthetical nature of films. Therefore, the concept of metaphor, which is in wide use in the field of poetical rhetoric, is divided into three different aspects in terms of the effects of metaphor, in other words, in terms of semantics: first, Roman Jakobson’s metaphor and Philip Wheelwright’s epiphor could fall under the same category, since they replace the lexicon by an analogical relationship and convey condensed meanings; second, Wheelwright’s epiphor and Paul Ricoeur’s “la métaphore vive” are of a similar form, but the latter is considered to have dealt with the former in a more comprehensive manner from a semantic perspective, but still share a lot in common as they promote expansion and pluralization of meanings through collision of dissimilar images; third, Jaques Lacan’s metaphor is an extreme form of the aforementioned epiphor, and can be understood as giving birth to a “sliding” of meanings through unconscious Otherness. Lacan’s metaphor, that are described as “meaning in nonmeaning”, “poetic spark” etc. maximizes tensions by completely transferring the possibility of interpretation to the reader.
The three types of metaphors mentioned above encompassed analogy with the three categories of montage by aesthetical effects, in terms of semantics. For instance, V.I. Pudovkin’s montage theory, which underlined the unity and consistency of associative images and perception, intended a similar effect to Jakobson’s metaphor and Wheelwright’s epiphor. However, Pudovkin’s montage seemed to advocate the montage that is based on the principle of narrative and formative consistency, thus, this paper expressed his conception as “montage of convergence,” and used it as the target conception. Second is the conception of Eisenstein’s montage and Vincent Amiel’s discourse montage—a more developed form of the former—had a more or less equivalent effect to Wheelwright’s epiphor and Ricoeur’s “la métaphore vive.” Finally, Lacan’s epiphor seemed to have similar effects to Amiel’s correspondence montage. In addition, the correspondence montage provides an important perspective in explaining the aesthetics of contemporary films, in other words, the aesthetics of “time-image” films as mentioned by Gilles Deleuze.
To substantiate such correlations of “metaphor-montage,” this paper concentrates on certain authors of a certain period of poetry and films. Thus, chapter III analyzed the form of metaphor in modernist poetry written in 1970’s, and the form of montage in Korean films of 2000’s. The scope of poetry is limited to those written in 1970’s to narrow the focus of the debate, and films of 2000’s were selected as a target of comparison because, first, this paper’s point is rather flexible in terms of periodic relationship, and second, rhetoric of films tend to transform itself continuously in tandem with technological development.
Ultimately, Kim Kyu Dong’s poems and Lim Gwon Taek’s films, Oh Kyu Won and Lee Seung Hoon’s poems and Bong Joon Ho’s films, Lee Seong Bok’s poems and Lee Myeong Se’s films, have been chosen to identify the form aesthetics correlation of “metaphor-montage.” In other words, the metaphor employed by Kim Kyu Dong’s poems mainly adopts Jakobson’s metaphor and Wheelwright’s epiphor. In Lim Gwon Taek’s films, “the montage of convergence” plays a critical role. In detail, the comparison of their metaphor and montage effects showed characterization of spaces according to the choice of image, as well as the structural editing effects of an “ideal observer.” This exhibits the consistency of strategies that embed the meanings through associative relationship.
Second, poems written by Oh Kyu Won and Lee Seung Hoon, and films of Bong Joon Ho, primarily used Wheelwright’s epiphor, Ricoeur’s “la métaphore vive,” and Amiel’s discourse montage respectively. The purpose of their rhetoric is to leave the interpretation of meanings to the reader and pluralize the meanings, rather than clarifying the meanings. If this can be called a semantic expansion, it can then be explicated in two aspects, in the language of Eisenstein; first, the ecstasy effect of the inner speech, and second, the reformation of meanings with the event of discourse.
Third, Lee Seong Bok’s metaphor and Lee Myeong Se’s montage seemed to adopt Lacan’s metaphor and Amiel’s correspondence montage respectively as the most important form aesthetics. The two can be described as the aesthetics of collage that show the alternative relationship of psychological injury, and a rhetorical strategy that enables reinterpretation of the “stage of others.” The relationship through aesthetical effects displayed similarities in philosophical and aesthetical attitude inherent in form aesthetics, beyond the mere similarity of rhetorical techniques.
Based on such empirical debates, Chapter IV looked into the scenes where “poetical moments” of visual images came into being through demonstration of the image of metaphor, in prestigious films at home and abroad. This is a new attempt to understand the montage aesthetics of films based on poems’ rhetorical and aesthetical debates that have taken place for a long period of time. As a result, first, it was confirmed that the aesthetic filmic experience conveyed by the subject’s language came from the unleashing of demonstrative, implied metaphor in visual images. Second, by looking at Barthes’ “le sens obtus”, that had been discussed in studies of mise en scene, in a rather critical light, it was found that the “poetical moment” conveyed by them could be revealed by montage. Third, Deleuze’s concept of “films of psychology,” which is based on the assumption that the function of montage was weakened in contemporary films, needed revision. This is because when Deleuze talked about “cinéma de l'esprit,” the “time-image” films were also based on the moment of montage when the influencing & affective function is strengthened.
As such, the key theme of this paper is related to the phenomenal studies concerning the media transference and consilience, that are currently in progress in various forms. Also, it is indirectly related to studies on “one-source, multi-use” or “multi-source, multi-use” of cultural contents. On the other hand, this also means that recent studies shed too much light on the strategic convergence between contents and technological convergence to generate commercial values. Therefore, as part of a study to find the principle of aesthetical communication between different genre of art, this paper dealt with poems and films that many scholars have not tried. This paper however, did not address the issue of practical consilience of poetry and films. Furthermore, the study on the form of montage inherent in various media, and their semantic functions, shall be left unaddressed for now. Hopefully, this paper can help stimulate and systemize comparative studies between different forms of medium for aesthetical consilience.