The Double Topology: Reflections on the Function and History of Literary Topoi

Abstract

This article sets out to rethink literary topology by way of a three-step argument. The article first critically analyzes how Curtius grounds topoi in Jung's archetypes and how Bakhtin grounds topoi in temporality. The article then proposes to think of literary topoi as originating in cultural and historical reality. At different points in time, new places, discourses, practices, and events arise, and, because of their cultural ubiquity, these cultural phenomena possess obvious conventional functions and meanings, a sort of cultural doxa. Second, however, literature constantly uses these phenomena for purposes other than the primary conventional ones. On the background of this constant literary misuse of culturally conventional phenomena, the article argues that a literary misuse, a heterodox use, is tied to the doxa of these new phenomena, a relation termed the double topology. The article demonstrates how this notion works with respect to new places (the horse carriage), discourses (gastronomy), practices (gallantry), and events (revolts). Third, the article discusses how literary history reflects upon its own heterodox topoi and the constant risk of their becoming clichés. At certain times, critical topoi themselves become clichés, and the article indicates ways in which authors have tried to rework topoi in order for them to become literary resources again.